


Unusual Activity

by Elle_Unknown



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Characters Are Pro Heroes (My Hero Academia), F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:21:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elle_Unknown/pseuds/Elle_Unknown
Summary: The woman walked with her shoulders back and chin up. The click of her heels echoed throughout the city, accompanied only by the slight breeze that tickled her skin and caused her hair to fall into her eyes.She walked with confidence. Confidence that, if one were to look into her records, was unexpected. This woman had gone her entire life being different from others in society. She was ostracized and shunned. Some people didn’t understand how someone like her could exist in the current day and age.Despite this, the woman lived her life to the fullest potential. She decided that even though she had certain disadvantages in society, she still wanted to help. Though her career wasn’t flashy and she never got much praise for it, she took pride in using science to create medicines for people in need.So no, her job wasn’t exciting or powerful, but it provided people with hope and relief. What else could she ask for?The woman was content, and as she continued to make her way down the street, a small smile made its way onto her lips.If only society could accept people who are different from them…
Relationships: Amajiki Tamaki/Toogata Mirio, Ashido Mina & Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Jirou Kyouka & Kaminari Denki, Kaminari Denki & Shinsou Hitoshi, Sero Hanta & Uraraka Ochako, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo
Comments: 12
Kudos: 19





	1. Extreme Aggressor

**Author's Note:**

> Updates: Bi Weekly, Saturdays/Sundays
> 
> Season 1: Chapters 1-8

_Shadows danced in alleyway corners and neon signs flickered dimly as night set upon the city. The sound of laughter and music filled the air around a bar, slowly fading into the distance as a woman no older than 40 made her way down the street._

_Adorned in a beautiful silk gown and heavy jewelry, one could assume she had been at a fancy restaurant or otherwise. However, upon closer inspection, her makeup was smudged and eyeliner streaked down her cheeks mimicking the flow of raindrops on glass panes._

_Had she been crying or was it something else?_

_Whatever the case, the woman walked with her shoulders back and chin up. The click of her heels echoed throughout the city, accompanied only by the slight breeze that tickled her skin and caused her hair to fall into her eyes._

_She walked with confidence. Confidence that, if one were to look into her records, was unexpected. This woman had gone her entire life being different from others in society. She was ostracized and shunned. Some people didn’t understand how someone like her could exist in the current day and age._

_Despite this, the woman lived her life to the fullest potential. She decided that even though she had certain disadvantages in society, she still wanted to help. Though her career wasn’t flashy and she never got much praise for it, she took pride in using science to create medicines for people in need._

_So no, her job wasn’t exciting or powerful, but it provided people with hope and relief. What else could she ask for?_

_The woman was content, and as she continued to make her way down the street, a small smile made its way onto her lips._

_If only society could accept people who are different from them…_

  
  


******************************

Standing behind a line of police tape, Kaminari took a sip from his nearly empty coffee cup. He was quite familiar with the scene presented in front of him- a woman laid dead in an alleyway in Hosu, her body mutilated and disfigured. Her face had been burnt off and all of her belongings stripped away, including her clothes. A message on the alleyway wall, written with what they assumed to be the woman’s blood, read: USELESS. 

This murder included the same M.O. as two others in Japan within the last two months. Given the specificity and brutality of the murders, the country decided there was enough evidence to argue that this was the work of the same killer. It was an official case that Kaminari and his team were invited to look into.

Cases like these had become Kaminari’s specialty over the past couple of years. The work that he and his team did differed from that of normal heroes. He worked in an agency specifically designed for investigating the behaviors of villains. Instead of patrolling and waiting for a bad guy to stir up trouble, the AU (Analysis Unit) analyzed the behavior of unknown villains to construct a profile and catch them before they could do any damage. 

The current case was one of the most gruesome sets of murders Kaminari had seen since joining the agency. 

The specifics of the murders gave them more information about their unsub (unknown subject). Number one, the M.O. was always the same: Burnt face, disfigured body, all identification indicators missing, and a message written in the victim’s blood. The three messages so far, in order, included: “Helpless”, “Worthless”, and “Useless”, all derogatory terms referring to the victims’ being. 

Number two, victimology: Age, gender, and race all didn’t matter to this unsub. The only thing he needed to know was that his victims were all quirkless. Kaminari assumed the unsub thought people without quirks were useless to this society and therefore needed to perish. He was a classic Mission-Oriented serial killer. 

Kaminari figured that this guy was also a narcissist, someone who believed himself to be a savior of society. A lunatic chasing an unreachable goal. Looking at the way he killed his victims, this guy downright _hated_ the quirkless populace. It made Kaminari a little sick to his stomach. He wanted to catch this guy as soon as possible, but there just weren’t any leads to go on. The killer was smart and knew what he was doing, he covered up his tracks so well that he was virtually impossible to find.

One of the most important pieces of the profile was missing, and for the life of him, Kaminari could not figure it out. He mulled over it for hours. This villain just didn’t leave any evidence of his quirk! If his team could figure out the quirk, he’d be much easier to find through their database. Either he targeted quirkless people because he _was_ quirkless and felt powerful killing the people whom he could overpower, or he was a radical bigot who believed too much in his cause. 

If it was the latter, then he _needed_ to figure out the guy’s quirk. Could it possibly have something to do with fire? With the way all the victim’s faces were charred... Unfortunately, in the world they lived in, “fire” was way too broad and the number of quirks that had something to do with flames could be infinite. There was also the fact that the murders were spread out over the course of two months, and each one occurred in a different city. Maybe this unsub had a quirk like warp gate? 

Kaminari glanced up at the alleyway wall. The word _USELESS_ seemed to mock him. It made him wonder whether the unsub directed that insult at his victims, or at the incompetent heroes that couldn’t catch him. The guy had been killing for two months and killed three people and Kaminari still felt he wasn’t any closer to getting the guy than he was a couple of weeks ago. 

Taking a deep breath, Kaminari refocused on the rest of the scene. The ambulance had already covered the body and loaded it into the back of the vehicle. Police were on crowd control, though reporters still swarmed around the scene, asking questions upon questions- questions that could not be answered at present. Next to the ambulance, Shinso Hitoshi interviewed the hero who found the body. 

Shinso had joined the AU a little after Kaminari. They had been acquainted at UA, so it was nice to have a familiar face in the job, especially with all the screwed up stuff you end up seeing through the AU. It was a relatively new hero work that involved some special training. If you asked Kaminari where he thought he’d be working as a hero, it certainly wasn’t the AU.

The people that worked for this specific unit were some of the brightest people alive. They were resourceful, smart, and able to consider things that most others would brush off. These people were the exact opposite of Kaminari. Despite that, he still somehow managed to worm his way into the agency and become one of the best profilers to date. 

That also made him qualified to be in charge of the entire unit. 

The AU was still relatively new. Kaminari never even knew of its existence until he interned with Masuyo Akiya, the founder. She had taken a liking to both Sero and Kaminari and had offered to give them the special training needed to profile different villains. These were the types of villains that if you weren’t actively looking for them, you wouldn’t find them. Interning with Akiya had been an eye-opening experience and that’s why Kaminari decided to officially join her agency. 

Of course, the work that came with the AU proved to be a lot more meticulous than that of the normal hero work. Rather than having patrols and incident reports, Kaminari’s job involved a lot of waiting, researching, theorizing, and more waiting. Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t complaining, it felt good to be able to catch the villains that weren’t so in your face, but it was just a lot. In the short time he'd been at the AU, he already felt as if he aged 30 years. There were some _awful_ people in the world, and it was his job to figure out why these people did what they did and apprehend them for it. 

A hand on his shoulder, pulled Kaminari out of his thoughts, “Manual was the hero on duty the night she was murdered.” 

He glanced up at Shinso. He looked exhausted, well, he always looked exhausted, but Kaminari could tell something about this case was making Shinso even more restless than usual. 

“Manual…” Kaminari pondered that name for a moment. It sounded familiar, “Oh! He’s the water guy or something, right?” Shinso gave a quick nod, “Did you talk to him already?”

Shinso frowned, “That’s the thing when I asked him about it, he said he checked and rechecked every alleyway. Apparently, there was a little get together at a bar a couple of blocks from here, so he was keeping his eyes open in case anything went wrong.”

Hmm. That _was_ pretty weird. If Manual had been patrolling in the alleyways or anywhere near, he should have been able to get to the woman. The zones heroes patrolled were pretty tame, one hero usually keeping track of a three-mile radius depending on the population of the zone and the hero’s quirk. And if Manual was keeping close to the bar, then he definitely should have at least seen the woman, not that he would have recognized her now. Something just wasn’t adding up. 

If there were people at a bar, then it was possible that they might know something...or at least know the victim, “Shinso, did you get the name of the bar?”

“Yeah I got it, Why? Do you think someone might have seen something?” 

Kaminari nodded, “Maybe. I’m wondering if she was at that get-together, maybe she never made it back home.”

“So no one bothered making sure she got back safe? I mean isn’t it a little weird that nobody said anything or tried walking her home? If she was there she was probably at least a little tipsy right?” 

He wasn’t wrong. The entire situation kept getting weirder. However, someone might have said something, “Shinso, can you call Ko and ask her if anyone filed a missing person report in Hosu for the past three days. Specifically, we’re looking for a female, mid to late 30s.”

Shinso gave a nod and pulled out his phone. If someone had reported this woman missing, then they would get a name a whole lot sooner than they had with the other two victims. The first one had been a boy around 19 years old. Kaminari hadn’t gotten to see that one, but he had never been identified. His body was found out in the middle of a wooded area by park rangers, they were never able to find out anything about him. The second victim was a woman in her early 60s, her name was Naomi Nakamura. She was a grandmother and a florist. The family had been devastated to hear the news, but they didn’t even know she was missing until the police told them about her death. It was strange. 

Kaminari sighed and let his hands glide down his face. There was a lot to unpack with this case and he didn’t want to wait on another body for a lead. Unfortunately, as he said before, this job involved a lot of waiting and even more patience. You had to keep a level head and not allow emotions to get the best of you. He learned that the hard way.

Akiya, his boss, was 32 years old when she trained Kaminari and Sero. She was 36 when she tried to talk a villain out of killing three innocent children. The villain let the children live, but in exchange, he left some irreparable damage. Akiya was 36 when she died and left Kaminari to be in charge of her little agency. Kaminari hadn’t been ready for that. Hell, he never even wanted an agency, but how could he refuse his mentor’s last wish? He knew he was too young, only 22, he had only been on the pro hero scene for about four years (Though you could probably include all the shit that went down at UA).

Whether he thought he was ready or not, Akiya trusted him to do the damn thing. You bet your ass he put everything he had into it. So for the past year and a half, Denki Kaminari made sure to lead his team the best he could. He wouldn’t let Akiya down. That’s why he had to catch this villain. 

“I got a name. Ren Eboshi. She worked at a pharmacy not too far from here. One of her co-workers got worried when she didn’t show up for work. They tried calling her and when she didn’t answer they tried her apartment, but obviously, there was no response. Took the story to the police and filed a missing person report Wednesday night.” Shinso put his phone back into his pocket. “She was an only child with no known living family left. Single, no kids. Looks like she just focused on her career.”

Kaminari thought for a minute, “Okay.... okay yeah, we need to talk to the coworkers. Do they know if she was at the bar?”

“That’s the weirdest part. They were there with her.”

Kaminari felt his brain try to fry itself. “You mean they didn’t offer to walk her back or anything. They never even bothered to see if she made it back home safe?” Some friends Ren had. It didn’t matter how drunk you were, the golden rule is to not let your friends just waltz on home alone. 

Shinso put his hands in his pockets, “According to them, everything about Tuesday night is foggy. They don’t remember much.”

“What, they got shitfaced on a Tuesday night knowing they all had work in the morning? I don’t think it’d look too good to have the neighborhood pharmacists mixing your drugs while hungover.”

Shinso shrugged, “I don’t know man. If you ask me, it sounds like they might be hiding something? Whatever it is, we have to talk to them first.”

“Do we have their names and addresses? You and I can talk to them while the other guys head to the bar to talk to the employees there.” He wanted to crack down on this case as fast as possible. This was more than they had to work with last time, so Kaminari was going to make sure to get ahead of this villain, and fast.

“I get you’re in a rush to get this guy. Believe me, I am too. But whatever we wanna do is gonna have to wait until tomorrow.” 

Kaminari frowned, “Why? If you have the names, then let’s go. Every day that we wait is another day this guy has to plan his next kill. If we don’t have to let another body drop to get this guy, then you bet your ass I’m not letting it happen.” The fact that Shinso could even suggest waiting was ludicrous. Kaminari knew Shinso was just as pissed off as he was about these kills, there was no reason to wait. 

Shinso crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, “Listen. The rest of the team can work on it, but you and I have somewhere to be soon. Or did you forget?” 

Kaminari blinked. Somewhere to be? The only place he needed to be was at the coworker's houses asking them about Ren. Where else would he need to go on a Friday night? Oh man, he hoped it wasn’t something too important. What could be-

“Holy shit, you actually did forget.” Shinso rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated smile, “God, you’re unbelievable.” He found this amusing. Good. That meant it couldn’t be too important… right?

“Okay, I give! What the hell am I forgetting?” Kaminari threw his arms up, almost dropping the cup in his hand. 

“Well, if you don’t want to go, I’m sure you could get away with skipping. Although, I don’t think certain people would be very happy with you.”

Kaminari racked his brain for important events on Fridays. Sometimes Jirou would stop by and they’d eat lunch together, but Shinso usually didn’t join him for that and it was way past lunchtime. It couldn’t have been work-related. He wouldn’t forget something like that... hopefully. His brain was starting to short circuit., until his eyes just happened to skim across a hero merchandise billboard, featuring some very familiar-looking designs.

Oh. _Oh no._ In that short period, Kaminari knew exactly what was happening tonight. Two of his old classmates were finally returning from spending two years in America. Kirishima had been the one to suggest hosting a “Welcome Home” party at one of the conference halls near Nighteye Agency. A party that one of the returning heroes would love and the other would hate. It had been a long time since Kaminari had spoken to either one of them, and he missed them. God, so much had changed since they left. What was he supposed to say?

Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou, otherwise known as Deku and Ground Zero had become Japan’s pride and joy after their third year at UA. After fending off the League of Villains for the entirety of their high school career, everyone from the original Class 1A had the final showdown with them during third year. Everyone in the class played a key role in finally neutralizing the League, but Midoriya had been the leading man. He put Shigaraki behind bars and defeated All for One permanently. The fight had been insane, and _Deku_ was practically already a household name. 

Bakugou also was essential in that final fight. Despite the animosity between those two, they had come out victorious and with them standing tall, a new sense of security slowly took root in the society that had almost lost all faith in heroes. Both of them joined the Nighteye Agency, now run by Lemillion, and were quickly two of the most popular heroes of the generation. However, the two just _had_ to follow in All Might’s footsteps and take a couple of years to do some hero work in the States. During that time, the Hero Rankings had been abolished. Many heroes decided that it was unfair to judge based on flashiness and social media presence, so the rankings sort of fazed out. 

Even so, Kaminari knew that if the rankings still existed, Midoriya and Bakugou would take those top spots. He wanted to be there for them when they came back. Yes, the serial killer was extremely important too and he wanted to get on that as soon as he could, but his team would be able to handle it for now. 

“Geez, I’m the worst.” He mumbled, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. 

Shinso eyed him warily, “Believe me, I know you are.” 

“Great. Thanks. You always know what to say to make me feel so much better” Kaminari scrolled through his contacts until he found the person he needed to talk to. 

“Thanks. It’s my specialty.” 

Kaminari laughed a little before waving his phone up, “I gotta make a call real quick. I can meet you there if you want.”

“Yeah, alright. I’m gonna head back and shower first. I don’t want to smell like a crime scene.”

Kaminari nodded before clicking the contact and bringing the phone up to his ear. If anyone could help him with this case, it was the one person who studied under Akiya with him. 

The phone rang once, twice, three times-

_"H- Oh my god, be careful with that! Ah, sorry. Hello?”_

Kaminari held the phone away from his ear. What kind of greeting was that? “Hey, dude. What’s going on over there?” 

_“What? Kaminari, is that you?”_ Sero sounded out of breath and a little panicky. 

Did this guy ever check the caller ID before answering? “No, it’s Peppa Pig. I was wondering if you knew how to whistle.”

_“Oh- shut the fuck up. What do you want, it better not be dumb cause I’m- HEY! -I’m kinda in the middle of someTHING-”_

Kaminari grinned, “Sorry dude. Is this a bad time? I can always talk to you about it later, you’re going to the party tonight, right?”

_“Huh? For Bakugou and Midoriya? Yeah, I’m going. Even if I didn’t want to, I'm sure Uraraka would drag me there anyway.”_

That made sense. They were probably in the middle of a rescue mission or something. Why would Sero even answer the phone during something like that? It felt nice to not be the only dumbass in the pro hero world. 

“Okay yeah, do you want me to just talk to you then?” 

_“Yeah, that would-”_

There was a loud crash on the other end of the line and Kaminari held the phone away from his ear again. 

_“DAMMIT, I gotta-” Click!_

Kaminari shook his head. He was hoping that maybe if he described the scene to Sero, he would get some different ideas circulating. Hopefully, he’d be able to remember the details at the party, and hopefully, Sero wouldn’t be too drunk. 

Looking back up around the crime scene, Kaminari realized that the reporters were all still there. The crowd was finally beginning to thin out, and the police force was still trying to bag evidence and calm the nerves of the residents. Turning back towards the wall of the alleyway, he snapped a picture of the blood word on his phone. He would delete it later, but he needed something to show Sero. He might be able to say something about the way the letters were written or something. 

He needed to make sure that the rest of the team could continue investigating while he was gone. Normally, that would never happen, but Kirishima forced him to take some time off Friday night for this specific event. Of course, Kaminari trusted his team, but he also wanted to interview the coworkers himself. There was something particularly fishy with their story that reminded him of the second victim’s family. The obliviousness these people seemed to have about the situation didn’t sit right with him.

It had taken this villain two months to claim three lives. This guy was getting faster and Kaminari didn’t want to know what would happen if they gave him another day to prepare. Therefore, his team would continue the investigation at the bar and Saturday morning, he and Shinso would interview the suspicious coworkers. 

After relaying all of this information to Ko and the other members of the team, Kaminari decided Shinso was right about smelling like a crime scene. He also didn’t want to show up to a party in his hero costume. On the other hand, he never went anywhere without his gun anymore, crazy as that sounds. He could electrocute people in an instant, but he still felt more at ease while carrying a gun. Strange world. 

Looking at the time, if he went home, showered, and changed- he was going to be late to the party. Considering the phone call with Sero, he and Uraraka would be late as well. That meant he couldn’t drink too much before Kaminari got there. Then there was Bakugou and Midoriya, where to even begin with that... well, he could figure that out in the shower.

There was a lot to process and a lot of work to be done. The media didn’t know about the serial killer case, to them, the murders were three separate events. Kaminari had to decide whether to inform the media about it or keep quiet to bring the villain out and stop him from going into hiding. 

Kaminari gave the scene one last lookover. The word _Useless_ screamed in his ears.


	2. "Normal"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirishima’s heart skipped a beat. They were officially back!! IN Japan! Fuck the coffee, man. He practically sprinted to the terminal where they would be getting off. Not like he had to run too far, he had chosen one of the closest seats (No he wasn’t allowed in the terminal, but who cares). For some reason he began to feel a bit nervous, why was he nervous? These were two of his good friends. People that he could depend on. He had been texting and calling them nearly every day, so why was he so sweaty? It had to be the excitement of finally seeing them in person.

Kirishima’s leg bounced a million miles per second. He could barely contain the amount of excitement exuding off him. After two years of facetime, phone calls, and texts, he was finally going to see Bakugou and Midoriya in  _ person. _ God, life had been so boring without the two of them there. 

He just missed them so much. Their constant bickering, Bakugou’s loud tirades, Midoriya’s muttering- he was ready for it all to be back in his life. Not to say that he didn’t have other friends or anything (his social life was doing just fine, thank you very much), but these two were his  _ roommates. _ His extremely rude roommates who up and left him to go to America for two years. 

They still paid their dues to the apartment, which was nice, but not having them there made the whole place feel empty. Whenever he went to go clean up their rooms, he couldn’t help wishing he had also been invited to do the hero work in America. Kirishima knew that was selfish; the entire country had been on edge when they realized Deku  _ and  _ Ground Zero were both leaving for an extended period. Someone had to stay to keep the citizens at ease. Besides, he also knew Bakugou and Midoriya had been looking forward to the internship for a long time. He wasn’t going to get in the way of them becoming better heroes, so he sucked it up and kept the apartment looking nice. Well… nice enough.

And yeah, Kirishima had plenty of other friends to spend his time with! Sure, he was busy with hero work a lot, but so were all the rest of his friends. They still tried to get together for a drink or something. It was just… difficult. In all honesty, he actually hadn’t seen Kaminari in months. Ever since he became the head of the AU, he never had time anymore. Kirishima didn’t blame him at all, but it would’ve been nice to get a call every once in a while.

The only person he knew would always help him out was Mina. If it wasn’t for her, the past two years would have been an even bigger struggle. She was usually always available when he wanted to chill, and she even went out of her way to make plans with him too. More often than not, he found himself spending the night at her place or vice versa. It was just kind of nice to have someone else in the apartment with him, especially considering how tough hero work became sometimes. Mina was always a constant in his life and it made him feel secure and grounded knowing that she would be there at the end of the day. 

The two of them tried to make plans with Sero and Kaminari too, but those two just got busier and busier every day. To be frank, Kirishima worried about them a lot. It was important to have a life separate from work, otherwise, you might let yourself get lost in the job. He watched it happen with Bakugou and Midoriya, but deep down, he knew that they’d always be like that no matter what. On the other hand, he never expected Kaminari to get so invested in his career. The guy spent an ungodly amount of time in his office working on a cluster of different cases. He was still Kaminari of course, but not the same guy he went to UA with that’s for sure. 

Sero wasn’t  _ as  _ bad. At least, Kirishima had seen him in person a couple of times within the past months. He and Uraraka were hero partners at Platinum, an agency that specializes in rescue and relief. Their quirks worked extremely well together, and after UA they both applied for Platinum and became official partners. Those two were the best rescue duo out there if you asked Kirishima. They had saved so many lives and gave hope to so many people, he was sure that if hero rankings were still active, those two would be in the top 10. 

Kirishima got up from his seat. He’d been waiting for around 40 minutes now. He wished that Mina or someone else could have come with him to the airport, but surprise surprise, everyone was busy. He knew Uraraka would have sold an arm and a leg to be there, but she didn’t get off duty until like an hour before the party was supposed to start. Kirishima trusted Mina to prepare the conference hall, so really it was his fault he was alone. 

He started walking around the airport. This specific port was reserved for important government personnel and heroes, so it was relatively small and hard to get into. The stress of a long flight would probably take its toll on the two returning heroes, and Kirishima would bet his life savings that they didn’t want to deal with the press, so the private airport it was. He was getting ready to get in line for a coffee when his phone buzzed-

_ Bakugou: just landed. luggage being sent home, you here? _

Kirishima’s heart skipped a beat.  _ They were officially back!! IN Japan!  _ Fuck the coffee, man. He practically sprinted to the terminal where they would be getting off. Not like he had to run too far, he had chosen one of the closest seats (No he wasn’t allowed in the terminal, but who cares). For some reason he began to feel a bit nervous, why was he nervous? These were two of his good friends. People that he could depend on. He had been texting and calling them nearly every day, so why was he so sweaty? It had to be the excitement of finally seeing them in person.

_ Bakugou: oi, shit for brains. you there or should we order an uber? _

Ah, right. He should probably answer that.

_ Yup!!!!! I’m right outside the terminal! Got my keys and everything so don’t worry about that Uber 💪🏻💪🏻👊🏻😤 _

Okay, Kirishima knew that it took a while to get everyone off of a plane. He  _ knew  _ that. But still, this deboarding process felt like it was taking a million years. He just wanted to see his friends again, but it felt like no one was ever going to walk out of those gates. Still, he sat there patiently, waiting... 

“Oh!! I think I see him. Kirishima!!!” 

That voice was all too familiar. Kirishima glanced up just behind the gates. His heart leaped and he almost fell out of his chair standing up. Right behind those gates, he saw a clump of mossy curls and a smile so bright it stung your eyes to look at. For some reason, his eyes felt a little moist. Must have been something in the air.

It took a minute for Kirishima to process the fact that Midoriya had dropped everything that he was holding to run forward and embrace him in a bone-crushing hug. Kirishima felt his lungs give out, maybe he should have activated his quirk before this. Even so, he tried to hug back with just as much force, though, Midoriya was pretty fucking strong. 

“We missed you so much! There's so much to tell you. I mean, I know you’ve probably heard most of it over phone calls and facetime and everything, but there’s some stuff that I knew I had to tell you about in person!” Midoriya barely paused to breathe, “Oh, and they had this really cool store over there dedicated to like retro heroes and stuff, and I didn’t think that they’d have any from Japan, but-” He finally let go of the hug to reach into his misplaced bag, “We got you a present!” 

Kirishima stared at him for a minute, not processing everything that he just said. Damn, he missed them. His eyes finally drifted up to the silent presence behind Midoriya. Arms crossed and a permanent scowl on his face, Bakugou’s gaze landed right on Kirishima. Now, this was a toughie! Should he go for the hug? No definitely not, Bakugou would send him through a wall. Maybe a shoulder pat?! No, absolutely not. That’s so lame, a shoulder pat?!! Seriously what the hell- 

“You sick or something? You look constipated.” 

That snapped him back into reality, “Wha- oh no, I just-” Kirishima stopped. Of course that’s the first thing Bakugou would say to him after being gone for so long. The greeting was so familiar that all the pent up nerves he had before suddenly left his body, “Nah man, I’m just really glad to have you guys back.” He reached out his hand, hoping Bakugou would settle for a handshake at least.

He did, “Glad to be outta that shithole that they call a country.”

“Kacchan! It wasn’t a- ugh, you’re impossible.” Midoriya’s face was twisted in concentration, as he was still rifling through his bag searching for whatever present they decided to bring back for him. 

“Hah?! Says the one that can’t fucking use a map!” 

Midoriya grimaced as he began pulling random trinkets out of the bag, “That was  _ one  _ time, and to be fair, we were in an entirely different country! It’s not my fault that the map looked different than the actual land!” 

“You’re just so fucking useless you can’t even read a map right-”

“Then why didn’t you ever read the map then! You could’ve let me drive instead.”

“If you can’t even read a map, why the hell would I trust you to know where we’re going?”

Yup. This is what Kirishima was missing in his life. He knew that the whole map situation might’ve happened the day they first got to America and the fact that they were still bickering about it… how did they survive two years with just the two of them? Actually, scratch that, how did the American pros deal with their constant fighting? The thought of it caused him to chuckle a bit.

“The fuck are you smirking at, Shitty Hair?” Bakugou growled. 

“Like I said, I’m just really glad you guys are back.”

Bakugou slumped a bit and crossed his arms again, “Tch. Whatever.”

“Ah! I found it!” Midoriya pulled out a red gift bag that looked like it had been through 18 world wars. He seemed to notice that as one hand came up behind his neck, “Ah- sorry that it’s a little… uhm-” he waved his hand around a bit, “I promise that the actual present is safe though! It wouldn’t get broken!”

Kirishima took the bag from Midoriya’s hand, “Do you want me to open it now?”

“If you want to!”

He did want to. Carefully, he opened the bag and searched around through some tissue paper until his eyes landed on...“BRO! NO WAY!” Kirishima almost peed himself right then and there. Inside the bag was a limited edition Crimson Riot figure. There were only three in existence, and no matter how hard he had tried, he had never been able to get his hands on one. “How did you? Where did you-”

Midoriya was smiling again, his eyes shining, “I saw it at that store dedicated to retro heroes!” His eyebrows scrunched a bit, “I think I might’ve spent all my money there at one point.... But I wanted to make sure to give that one to you!”

Kirishima gulped. See, this is why he loved his friends so much. They just  _ knew _ . They were so manly like that. Always being able to just know. If he thought about it too much, he would start crying again. “Man, I love you guys so much.” He hugged Midoriya again, and this time it wasn't rib breaking.

“Dammit Deku, how’d you manage to make this big of a fuckin’ mess in an airport. Jesus, what the hell was in that bag?!” 

Kirishima glanced at the mess below him. Whoa. He wasn’t kidding, there was a  _ ton  _ of shit in that bag. Bakugou was already in the process of picking everything up off the floor. At least that much hadn’t changed. Good to know he was still a neat freak. Kirishima cringed a little at how Bakugou might react to seeing their apartment for the first time in two years. Speaking of which-

Midoriya and Bakugou looked the same. Not that he expected them to look any different after all their facetime calls, but still. Midoriya’s hair was still a curly disaster on top of his head. Bakugou still had a permanent expression of disgust on his face. It almost felt as if they never had left. Almost. 

When they first arrived in America, the crime rate in Japan had slowly begun to increase again, not too dramatically, but it did. The country still had heroes like Todoroki and Inasa looking out for them, but that didn’t mean citizens weren’t on edge. Midoriya and Bakugou were able to create an atmosphere similar to the one All Might created for society. They were untouchable. They were peace and victory personified. 

“Can we get on the road already? I’m fucking starving, I wanna eat and shower before we have to go to this stupid reunion thing or whatever.” Bakugou stood up with Midoriya’s bag, mess on the ground completely gone. 

Kirishima grinned, “Yeah, yeah. Any places you guys wanna go to that you missed while you were gone?”

Midoriya practically exploded, “YES! Do you know how much I’ve missed our boba places? I’ve been craving it since we first landed in the US!” 

Boba did sound good. Kirishima also knew a boba place that wasn’t too far away, and they also served amazing sandwiches and hotdogs. A hot dog sounded pretty appetizing at the moment. Still, he glanced at Bakugou for confirmation. He wanted to make sure everyone was on board with the choice.

When he didn’t protest, Kirishima clapped his hands together, “All right, boba it is.” 

  
  
The drive had been full of Midoriya’s chatter the entire time. Apparently, there was a ton of stuff that they did in America that Kirishima had never been aware of: Working with the FBI to stop a dude with a quirk that summoned zombies; Midoriya losing his memory for 12 hours because of some girl that wanted to marry him and start a new life with him; Accidentally releasing all the animals from the Henry Doorly Zoo because of some guy who could transform into animals. The list goes on. 

The same kind of conversation went on through the time spent at the boba shop until Midoriya stopped all of the sudden, “Wait, I’ve been talking for too long, I’m sorry. I guess I just got a little excited over finally being able to tell you about all these things!” He put down his cup. “But, how have you been, how has everyone been? I’ve missed you guys so much. I mean, I’ve kept in touch with you and Uraraka and Iida of course, but everyone is so busy. And the whole time zone thing… I guess I just haven’t been able to be as in touch with everyone as I would’ve liked.” He had a melancholy look in his eyes as he finished. Kirishima didn’t like that.

“Don’t sweat it, dude! Honestly, not much has changed with me. I’m still at Suneater’s agency, going on patrols- same old same old. I guess Todoroki finally got Endeavor to retire, and he runs his agency now-”

“Really?? That’s amazing, I can’t believe he wouldn’t tell me something as important as that!!”

Kirishima chuckled again, “Well, you know him. He probably doesn’t even think something like that has any significance.”

Midoriya laughed, “It’s true, but I’m surprised that I didn’t see it on social media or through the news or anything. In fact, why didn’t you mention it earlier?” 

“Well I mean it happened pretty recently like I’m talking a couple of days ago.”

“Seriously? I guess we were just so busy with getting back here, I didn’t even realize…” Midoriya chewed on his boba. “I guess I’ll talk to him about it tonight.” 

"Yeah. Speaking of being in charge of agencies, I think I probably mentioned it to you guys before, but Kaminari is head of the AU.” 

Bakugou scoffed, “That bitch must’ve been outta her damn mind to put him in charge of anything. Probably the lack of oxygen in her brain.”

Kirishima didn’t argue. They were all a little bit surprised to see that Kaminari was the first one in their class to run his own agency. It was unexpected because of the founder’s sudden death, but also because it was… Kaminari. However, over time it became apparent that he cared about the agency more than anything. He tried his best and anyone would be stupid not to recognize that, but Bakugou and Midoriya had never seen it. They probably never even spoke with him. All three of them were so lost in their own worlds it was no surprise Bakugou would assume Kaminari a… subpar choice. Well, he would be in for a shock tonight. 

“Kacchan! I’m sure Kaminari is doing just fine. He’s a good hero, everyone in our class is.” 

Leave it to Midoriya to have faith in everyone, no matter who they were or what they were like. Bakugou simply rolled his eyes, not bothering to respond. How very Bakugou of him. Although, he had certainly improved since UA. The progress in his behavior had been barely noticeable after their first year, but it was there. From then on, he continued to… mellow out. He was still Bakugou, but at least people weren’t scared to talk to him anymore.

Midoriya coughed and played with his straw little, twisting it in circles watching his tea become a whirlpool. He chewed on his lip before he finally brought his eyes up to Kirishima and asked, “Uhm, so- How is Uraraka? I mean, I’ve been keeping in touch with her, but you know how it is.”

Kirishima gave him a warm smile, “She’s doing good, man. You know her and Sero are like the best hero team Japan’s ever seen! She’s super popular, especially with the kids. She wanted to come with me today, but she had patrol.”

That answer seemed to make him relax a little and he sighed with relief, “I’m really glad.”

After that, the conversation went back and forth between what Bakugou and Midoriya did in America and what Kirishima had been doing in Japan and what the rest of the class was doing. They stayed in the restaurant until long after their meals were finished. The time was ticking, and they had a party to get to later. He assumed that Bakugou and Midoriya would both want a chance to freshen up after such a long plane ride, so he opted for them to head back to the apartment.

“Ugh, I can’t wait to finally be home. I already can feel the jetlag hitting me.” Midoriya stretched as he got up from the booth.

Kirishima frowned, “Shit, I didn’t even think about that, are you guys gonna be able to make it through the party? I should’ve thought about that, guys- I’m so-”

“Think we can’t handle some fuckin’ jetlag? S’fine. Slept the whole way here anyway, I couldn’t fall asleep if I tried.” 

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry.” Kirishima chuckled to himself, of course, this was fine. They would’ve said something if it wasn’t. Still, they needed to get home fast, he wanted to give them some time before they had to go meet up with everyone else.

……………

Kirishima fumbled for his keys outside the apartment door. Someone had met them outside with all of the luggage Bakugou and Midoriya had taken to America. Well, all the luggage they  _ brought back _ from America. They hadn’t taken that much with them; necessities were provided over in the States. However, they collected a lot of shit over the past two years, and Kirishima was concerned that it wouldn't fit in the apartment.

As soon as he got the door open, Midoriya dragged everything inside and made a beeline for the couch, “I’ve missed this couch so much…” his voice sounded muffled against the fabric. 

Bakugou set his bags down, and immediately broke into a sprint, “Dibs on the shower.”

“Wait, no! That’s not fair!” 

Bakugou made it to the bathroom first. 

“If we ever get a new apartment, we’re getting one with multiple bathrooms. Why did we do that? We can afford more than one bathroom.” 

Kirishima nodded. The only perk of having those two gone was his unlimited access to the bathroom. He never had to share with anyone, unless Mina was over. “You’re forgetting we got this apartment right out of UA. We didn’t have a dime to our names.”

“Okay, but why did we never move out of here?” Midoriya grumbled, sitting up on the couch.

“It’s convenient. Closest complex to both Lemillion and Suneater’s agencies. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten everything while you were away.”

Midoriya shook his head, got up, and walked toward the counter in the kitchen, “No. It’s nice to be back. I’m excited to see everyone, but also… nervous? I don’t know, I guess it’s just gonna be weird seeing everyone after so long.” 

Kirishima blinked. That’s exactly how he felt at the airport earlier. 

“I get it, dude. You guys have a  _ ton  _ of people to catch up with, but even I’ve lost touch with some of our old classmates. Life just is like that, so I’ll be seeing some people for the first time in a while too. It’s gonna be the same for everyone!”

Midoriya gave him a small smile, “Thanks. I don’t know what I’m psyching myself up for anyway. I guess I’m just nervous about readjusting to the hero work here, it’s different you know?”

“I mean, I don’t know what it’s like to have to readjust, but everybody loves you guys. Being away for a couple of years isn’t gonna change that. Whatever you guys end up doing now, the people are just glad to have you back home.”

Midoriya’s fingers drummed the countertops and he just nodded his head, “I guess. I knew going to America would change things. At least help me to get a new perspective on hero work… I didn’t expect everything at home to be waiting for me just the way I left it, but I guess it’s just sad seeing how everyone’s moving forward and I didn’t get to be there to support them. I feel like a lousy friend.” His shoulders slumped.

Kirishima sighed and raked his hands through his hair. He knew that there would be mixed emotions with them coming back, but he thought it would be about the friends they made  _ in America,  _ not the people they left behind. Thinking about it in hindsight, Midoriya seemed concerned about everyone back at the boba place, almost like there was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t.

“You shouldn’t feel like a lousy friend. I mean, yeah it sucks that you couldn’t be there, but don't ya think everyone else would have felt bad for making you stay here just for them? Everyone’s been walking their own paths, that includes you. You’ve taken a step forward, and so has everyone in our class. That’s life. Nobody resents you for taking a chance to enrich your career, so don’t sweat it. Seriously, man, what kind of people do you think we are?”

Midoriya laughed, “I know, I’m sorry.” He paused and looked down at the counter again, “It is weird, though. Even after being gone, walking in here felt like coming home after a normal day. Don’t you kinda feel it too?

Kirishima nodded. He didn’t know what he expected, but it had felt like they were just doing their normal routine. The same feeling he got at the airport-  _ Almost as if they had never left. Almost. _ He opened his mouth to say something- 

_ Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt.  _

“Ah, sorry.” Kirishima reached into his pocket, who the heck was calling him, now? He glanced at the name on the screen:  _ Sugar Baby <3\.  _ Oh. It was Mina. And no, he did not make that her name, but he also didn’t care enough to change it. He threw a quick glance toward Midoriya who nodded his head. 

“Yo!”

_ “Heyyyyyy. Did you get the two babes, yet?”  _

“Yup, want me to put you on speaker?” 

Midoriya looked at him quizzically and silently mouthed,  _ Who is it? _

_ “Uhm Duh! Are they both there?” _

“Just me and Midoriya. Bakugou is in the shower.” He took the phone off his ear and placed it on the counter, “All right, Pinky, you’re on speaker.”

_ “Midoriyaaaaa!!!! Hey baby, I missed you so much. Ugh, there’s just so much to tell you… but that can wait. Anyway, how are you, how was America? I wanna know everything!”  _ She practically screeched into the phone.

“Hey, Ashido! I missed you too. I’m doing pretty good right now, kinda tired from the plane ride, but I’ll make it through tonight! America was great, I can tell you more tonight if you want.” Midoriya practically lit up, hearing Mina’s voice. Kirishima didn’t know if it was because she wanted to hear about America, or if it helped to ease his concerns about seeing everyone. Though, he suspected it was the latter. 

_ “Aww, we won’t tire you out too much, I promise. Anyway, I was just calling to touch base. Everything is good to go here, and I just wanted to make sure everything was going well on your guys’ end!” _

Kirishima groaned, “C’mon, Mina. I can handle picking up my roommates.”

_ “I know, I know. But you didn’t call or text or anything and I just wanted to make sure you guys were good.” _

“Yeah, we’re fine. Hey, I’ll see you in a bit, okay? I wanna freshen up before we have to leave.”

_ “Why? You got someone you wanna impress?” _

“I- What?! It’s just… not manly to show up to something like this without…” Kirishima felt his cheeks get warm. He heard Midoriya laughing and elbowed him in the ribs.

_ “Okay! Okay! Go get em’ tiger!” Click! _

“Ugh, she’s exhausting.” He let his hands fall down his face. “Why does she do this to me?”

Midoriya moved to sit on top of the counter and let his legs dangle off the side, “Cause she’s Ashido. I can’t wait to see her again.”

Kirishima laughed at that.  _ Because she’s Ashido.  _ Well, he had some freshening up to do. That included mentally preparing himself to confront all the classmates he hadn’t seen in forever. Geez, maybe he accidentally absorbed Midoriya’s nerves during that conversation. Anyway, It was just a little reunion, not much would happen anyway… right? 


	3. Plain Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, he knew that voice. He hadn’t heard it in a while, but that bubbly tone belonged to his old classmate, Ochako Uraraka. He turned to face her, giving a small wave and smile. Honestly, she didn’t look much different in person than she did on social media or TV. However, in comparison to UA, she stood a little taller and her face had lost some of its baby fat. She had also let her hair grow out a bit and it was currently pulled back into a princess bun with her bangs pulled out in front of her. She was still ridiculously cute.

Kaminari felt the sweat drip down the back of his neck. He was nervous. It’s not like the people inside the building were strangers. They were his friends, people that he knew he could depend on and trust. Still, when you haven’t talked to someone in two years, you have to wonder if that’s going to affect your relationship at all. Not to mention, there was still a rogue serial killer on the loose attacking the quirkless population. 

His thoughts were a little preoccupied. 

Next to him, Shinso gave a heavy sigh, “You know, you’re closer with all of these people than I am. I’m only here to welcome Midoriya back to America and to congratulate Todoroki on his new position. So calm the fuck down and stop acting like the world is gonna end as soon as you open these doors.” 

Kaminari ran a hand through his hair. He knew he was being ridiculous, but there were still some butterflies in his stomach, not only at the prospect of seeing Bakugou and Midoriya but also at the thought of having to face Kirishima and Mina and the rest of the people he’d been blowing off for months. He was just a little stressed, that’s all. 

Hesitating for only a second, he opened the door to the conference hall where he knew tons of heroes would be waiting. The conference hall was a beautiful choice, Mina and Kirishima had outdone themselves. The main party was taking place in the ballroom and you had to show ID to get in. How fancy. 

The ballroom was gorgeous. The entire room looked like something out of a castle; the floor was marble and so shiny that you could look down and see your reflection. The windows were big and arched, allowing the setting sun to make perfect beams of light shine throughout the room. Tables were covered in white cloth and surrounded by birchwood chairs that had been polished and painted. Hanging from the center of the room, a chandelier adorned in diamonds and gold shined brightly amidst the crowd. Kaminari had to stop and take it all in, it truly was breathtaking. 

The beauty of the room made him feel sorely underdressed, but then, looking at everyone else, he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t gotten the memo. It appeared that a nice pair of jeans and dressy shirts were the only qualifications you needed to be allowed into this party.

Gazing out among the sea of people, Kaminari realized that he didn’t recognize a lot of the heroes in the room. Did Midoriya and Bakugou have a bunch of secret friends he didn’t know about? Well… probably. On the other hand, Kirishima had told him the party would be relatively small, only including people that he would be familiar with. That left him with three possibilities: A) Kirishima straight up lied to him, which would make no sense whatsoever. B) Kaminari needed to get up to date with all these people and maybe go through a yearbook or something. Or C) Word had gotten out that Bakugou and Midoriya were back in the country and people had found a way to get in. 

He had a sinking feeling that it was probably C, considering the sheer amount of people. Who got the word out, Kaminari hadn’t a clue. Unfortunately, this new information gave his anxiety a new spike. There could be any number of people here trying to take their revenge on hero society, if it wasn’t safe, everyone needed to evacuate the area immediately.

His eyes meandered around the room and finally settled on a man in a black dress suit and cargo pants. He had a mass of facial hair decorating his chin and a scar on his left cheek. He stood alone in the corner of the room just watching people pass by. He sipped on his drink every so often and checked his watch an unusual amount of times. Was he checking it on an interval? Why? What was he waiting for? Was he-

A sharp pain in his side pulled him out of his thoughts, “Hey. Stop profiling. Nobody is here to hurt anyone, it’s a safe place. Just try to relax and have a good time. I think I saw Jirou around here somewhere.”

Kaminari sighed again. Shinso was right of course. Even if there had been a leak, security protocol would make sure no one of villainous intent got in. Besides, there wasn’t a guest list, but if your ID wasn’t in the database they wouldn’t let you in. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I’m just a little on edge.” 

“Dude, we just had to stare at one of the most fucked up crime scenes I’ve ever seen. I’d be nervous if you weren’t on edge, but you need to just focus for a minute and try talking to your friends. They probably miss you.” 

Despite his nerves, Kaminari felt a smile coming on. Shinso gave him one last pat on the back before taking off to find the drinks. Kaminari watched him twist through the crowd when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Kaminari!”

Ah, he knew that voice. He hadn’t heard it in a while, but that bubbly tone belonged to his old classmate, Ochako Uraraka. He turned to face her, giving a small wave and smile. Honestly, she didn’t look much different in person than she did on social media or TV. However, in comparison to UA, she stood a little taller and her face had lost some of its baby fat. She had also let her hair grow out a bit and it was currently pulled back into a princess bun with her bangs pulled out in front of her. She was still ridiculously cute. 

She let her hand fall to her side and flashed Kaminari one of her signature smiles, “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever, but Sero has told me you’ve been busy with your new position and all.”

Kaminari nodded, “Yeah. I haven’t had a lot of time to really, uh-” he waved his hand around in a vague gesture, “Get out there I guess. There’s just a lot of stuff to do and not enough people to do it, so- yeah.”

Ochako nodded her head in sympathy, “Yeah, sometimes I feel that way with all the rescue work we do too. I mean, there’s only so many disasters we can reach in time..” She grimaced for a second before shaking her head, “but we’re not here to talk about that! Like, how have you, Kaminari, been?”

Oh just spending my time looking at disfigured corpses, but you know!

“Oh, I’ve been doing well, considering. I’ve got a couple of cases that I need to get cracking on, I’m glad I finally have this break to clear my head a little bit. It should help to see it from a new angle, hopefully. What about you?”

Ochako smiled warmly while taking a sip from her drink.

“Well, you certainly sound busy. Other than work, I’ve been trying to get a self-defense class up and running.”

“A self-defense class? For what, like, heroes in training?”

“Actually…” Ochako paused and knit her brows together, “Tell me if this is a bad idea… but I wanted to try and teach self-defense tactics to kids. I know that some of them have powerful quirks already, but they’re still kids, you know? I guess I just want them to be able to have something, a plan of some sort in case of a villain attack, or even a natural disaster. Maybe their quirks could even help them without having to cause any injury!” 

As she spoke, her eyes brightened and she became more passionate with every word. This was extremely important to her, it didn’t take a profiler to see that. 

Kaminari couldn’t help the smile that found its way onto his face, “I think that’s super noble of you, Uraraka! Dedicating your time to helping others, even though you don’t have to, is super Plus Ultra!” He pumped his fist in the air with the words, ‘Plus Ultra’.

Ochako laughed and looked down, “Well, I’m glad you think that. It’s just hard because in order to open up the class… I need an assistant, or at least another adult in the room. Until I can find someone who wouldn’t mind teaching kids and has any time, I won’t be able to do much.” She shook her head, “If you know anyone like that, feel free to let me know.” 

He wished he could help her. He really did, but those requirements felt impossible. Kaminari wouldn’t have minded teaching kids, but the time… There wasn’t anyone who had that anymore. Despite that, Uraraka still planned on using her little to no free time to help even more people. She really was a hero.

“I hope you find someone. If I ever come across anyone who fits your profile, I’ll send em’ your way.” 

Ochako beamed, “Thanks, that means a lot. By the way, have you seen Deku anywhere? I’ve been looking for him since we got here, but…” Her eyes traveled across the room, searching for any sign of her close friend. 

Kaminari tried to look too. He also hadn’t had a chance to find the centers of the party, yet. He assumed they'd be pretty easy to locate, as this party was for them, but it’s almost as if they took a page from Hagakure’s book and disappeared. 

“Oh wait, I think I see Kirishima! Let’s go ask him.” Ochako grabbed Kaminari’s arm and practically dragged him over to a table at the end of the room.

His stomach was doing backflips. He wasn’t going to avoid this encounter all night, of course, but he just didn’t think it would happen so soon. As they got closer to the table, his mind began to spark; what was he going to say? Was Kirishima gonna hate him for not returning his phone calls? God, he was such an idiot, he could have at least made an effort to grab a drink with him or something. Great. His best friend probably hated him and it was all his fault. 

“BRO! You made it!” 

Or not.

Kirishima threw his arms around Kaminari for one of the best hugs he’d had in a long time. At first, he couldn’t react and his arms hung lamely at his sides before he mentally kicked himself and hugged back. 

“Man, I was worried you’d have some lame work excuse for not coming. I’m glad you made it.” Kirishima said, still not letting go of the hug. Not that Kaminari minded, much. 

“I couldn’t miss this.”

Kirishima gave his back one last pat before releasing him, which didn’t disappoint him at all. 

“You haven’t had anything to drink, yet? Need me to go get you something?” Kirishima turned to go up to the bar, but Kaminari stopped him.

“Believe me, if I could I would. I have to be up early tomorrow though, and I’m afraid if I start with one- well, we all were there at graduation.”

Kirishima grinned, “Okay, but if you change your mind-”

“Ohohoho! Look who decided to show up!” 

Kaminari’s heart dropped. He had been so caught up with seeing Kirishima, he hadn’t even noticed that Ochako had been idly chatting with- 

“I’m surprised you came, considering you’ve blown us off literally every time I try to make any plans. Ughhhhh, it’s so uncool.” 

Mina slapped her hands on either side of Kaminari’s face, “You. Are. Un. Cool.” She slapped his face between every word, not too hard, but still. “I miss you, Mister Head Honcho guy!” 

Kaminari smiled. Yeah, he missed her too. Mina had been his right-hand man throughout all of UA. He missed her a lot. A lot more than he initially realized. Why were his eyes sweating? 

This time Kaminari just went for the hug. Mina was a little tipsy, so she probably wouldn’t care that much. The embrace was warm, and after such a long day, it felt a little bit like coming home. Also, Mina smelled nice. For the first time in a while, Kaminari felt himself start to relax. 

“Kirishima, have you seen Deku anywhere?” Ochako finally asked.

“Huh? Oh, Midoriya? I mean, I got here with them, but as soon as all the people started showing up… well… you know how Midoriya is.” 

In conclusion, Midoriya could be anywhere and no one would have a clue where to start looking. Considering that it was a lost cause to try and find him, everyone decided to just sit and chat at the table they were already at. Eventually, someone would spot Midoriya, but going through the effort of searching the entire ballroom just seemed counterproductive. 

Kaminari was also on the lookout for Sero. At this point, the guy was probably too drunk to give much help on the case, but it didn’t hurt to try. Sero was good at figuring out what certain handwriting patterns could mean, judging based on the curves of the letter and how neat the writing appeared. He also wanted to ask about any theories Sero could offer for the obliviousness of the family and the coworkers. Their behaviors were suspicious, to say the least. 

Mina was around her fourth drink when Ochako screeched with excitement and tackled Midoriya down to the ground in one of the most intense hugs Kaminari had ever seen. How she even noticed where he was, Kaminari couldn’t tell you. He watched the two both start crying and laughing between tears. They exchanged a few words before Midoriya finally helped them both to stand up. He glanced up at the table and locked eyes with Kaminari. Oh no. 

He should have expected this. Once again, he was caught in another hug trap. Only this time it was Midoriya, and Midoriya was pretty fucking strong. Kaminari was sure he was dying; he couldn’t breathe. Oxygen was not making it into his lungs. After he saw God himself, Midoriya finally released him. 

“I just wanted to congratulate you on your agency! I know it must have been hard on you, especially with Akiya, but I’m sure you’re doing an amazing job! I wanna hear all about what it’s like. I heard that you caught the Mountainside Killer, you have to tell me about that one! I’m glad you were able to make it tonight! Huh, I guess I should have started with that… sorry.”

Kaminari honestly couldn’t remember why he had been nervous. Poor Midoriya hadn’t seen any of these people for two years and here he was, chatting with everyone like it was no big deal. Then again, Midoriya had always been like that. 

Apparently, he had already crushed Kirishima’s ribs at the airport… and Mina’s as soon as he walked in. Kaminari couldn’t tell if he crushed Ochako’s bones too, or if she had crushed his. He guessed it didn’t matter either way. Midoriya decided to chill at their table and relax for a minute. He must’ve been pretty exhausted already. He had already had a long-ass flight and having to greet hundreds of people must have been pretty harrowing. 

Although Kaminari hesitated to ask, there was just one thing he had to know.

“Hey, so… is Bakugou around? Or did he decide he was too good for a reunion and head out?” 

Midoriya chuckled, “No. His parents were pretty excited to see him, so I think they dragged him off somewhere around here.” 

Ah, that made sense. It wasn’t like he was nervous to see Bakugou or anything. Bakugou… well… he was intimidating. They had been… something at UA, but with Bakugou everything was always a gamble. 

“Don’t worry. He may never say it, but he missed you guys a lot.” 

Kaminari didn’t know if he believed Midoriya on that one, but he hoped he was right. 

Eventually, Kirishima told Midoriya to tell some stories from America.

“The ones you told me in the car, man!”

Turns out, there was a lot of stuff that happened in America. He supposed spending two years anywhere would get someone to rack up a ton of stories. However, Kaminari couldn’t remember what he ate for breakfast that morning, so Midoriya being able to recall so many things in great detail was… pretty cool. Hell, he even remembered the story where he lost his memory. What the fuck was up with that?

“It was weird. Like, I could remember who I was and where I was, but the day's event just felt… kinda foggy.”

“Midoriya, that’s insane. I bet she was just trying to get a piece of that hot bod~”

Midoriya squeaked, “Oh my- Ashido!” 

“I’m just playin’!” Mina said as she rested her head on Kaminari’s shoulder, “And, are you sure you’re not gonna drink at aaaaaaaalll? I spent so much time getting all this ready too…”

Kaminari couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to participate or anything- he just wanted to keep his mind clear. He knew he was probably being unreasonable, but he couldn’t help it; he had a feeling something would go wrong if he allowed himself to drink, even if it was only a tiny bit. 

“C’mon leave the poor guy alone, he’s a busy man!” Kirishima laughed, patting him on the back, “Besides, I heard you’re working on a pretty rough case right now.”

Kaminari stilled. He wasn’t talking about the case from today, right? That case hadn’t been announced to the public, yet. Instead, the murders were viewed as three separate events. They left it unannounced in order not to create mass-panic. Besides, if the unsub wanted publicity, Kaminari wasn’t going to give it to him. 

“I mean, I’ve always got a lot of rough cases if that’s what you mean.” 

Everyone at the table nodded in sympathy. He wasn’t lying. No matter how many cases his team solved, there was always another villain out destroying lives. Sometimes, he had to wonder if what he did meant anything. He knew that job was difficult, any type of hero work was, but he never realized just how fucked up some people were. Nothing was worse than having to tell a parent that their child had been murdered. These villains took everything from people, not caring about what carnage they left behind. Some of them did it for fun, others for sexual release, and some because they were ‘on a mission to cleanse the world’. 

Kaminari especially hated that last type. What right did one person have to sentence an entire group of people to death? The worst part was that they always thought they were doing the right thing and that the heroes would be the only ones who understood. In that sense, they weren’t entirely wrong. You had to get into the mind of a villain to catch them. It was important to understand ‘why’. If you could figure that out, you could save hundreds of lives. 

At some point, Midoriya got up to ‘continue greeting other people’, and Ochako volunteered to go with him, which just left him with Kirishima and Mina. 

“Geez, you guys have no idea how great it is to have them back,” Kirishima said while leaning back in his chair. “That apartment’s been way too boring.” 

Kaminari had no idea. He lived alone, and the idea of having roommates was a pretty far away thought. All his space was inhabited by different case files and theories about different villains. Someone who didn’t know his job might think that he was just a pretty hardcore conspiracy freak. 

“What!? I think I made the apartment pretty fun!” Mina playfully punched him in the arm. “You don’t think I make good company? Kiri.... do you hate me?” 

“Wha-? No! I just meant like- I missed them?” Kirishima struggled to make a case for himself, “C’mon, Mina, you’re the best company! I’d hang with you any day- huh?”

At that point, Mina was howling with laughter, “God you take everything so seriously, don’t worry, I’m just joking!” A pause. “But also, just because they’re back, that doesn’t mean you can start blowing me off like Mr. Business over here.”

Kaminari’s turn to splutter, “I’m sorry! It’s just… listen, guys.” He sighed, even if Mina had just been playing, that didn’t excuse his shitty friend behavior. He wanted to do better, even if they already forgave him. He needed to do better for them and himself.

“I wanted to put work into my job. I mean, obviously, all of us do because we’re heroes and that’s just like uh, a part of our personality. But, I’ve always been one to get down and have fun too, I mean, how can you live life without a little humor? I guess I just got a little too absorbed in my job. I don’t mean to keep blowing you guys off, like, it feels like you guys have been gone for just as long as Bakugou and Midoriya! That’s my bad…” He took a breath, “I guess what I’m trying to say… is that I’m sorry. I’ll try to be around more often. It’s not fair to you guys, so I promise I’ll try.” 

Kaminari stared straight at the table, he didn’t want to chance to look at their reactions. 

In an instant, there were four arms around him.

“Oh hon, you know we love you! You don’t need to apologize for being good at your job. Fuck you for making me cry, asshole!”

“C’mon man, we’re bros for life! Just because life gets busy, that doesn’t mean anything’s gonna change. You’re just super manly at your job and that’s great. I was never mad at you, I’m sorry if I ever made you feel that way.” 

Great, so his master plan was foiled and it resulted in him also starting to cry. What the hell had he done in his past life that was so amazing, he got blessed with friends like this? Who cares. He tried to hug them back, but he was kinda in the center and they blocked his arm movement. 

“Oi, what the fuck is going on here?” 

Kaminari’s stomach churned. Oh, man. This was fine. He hadn’t seen Bakugou in two years and the first impression he was about to make was a face full of tear tracks and snot. Perfect.

“Kaminari is making us cry.” Mina pouted, finally releasing him from her arms. 

Bakugou scoffed, “The fuck you cryin’ for? It’s a party, supposed to be fun.”

Steeling his nerves, Kaminari finally turned to face him. Hopefully, his eyes didn’t look as red as they felt, maybe he could blame it on weed or something. 

“It’s good to see you, man! Been way too long.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Heard that they gave you an agency. Must’ve been pretty desperate if they let you have it.”

Ouch. That stung a little bit, but he couldn’t really blame him. Kaminari knew that it was pretty ludicrous. No one ever expected him to run an agency, least of all him. Hell, it wasn’t even a normal agency either. It had been the AU, a place where all the brightest hero minds worked together to solve some of the most difficult cases known to man. Kaminari didn’t fit the profile of someone who should’ve been working there. 

“Hey, he does good work there! You should see how popular he is in the media and everything. He’s a pretty big deal!” 

Thanks, Kirishima. 

“Dumbass, you think I don’t keep up with social media? I know that!” 

Kaminari blinked. Did Katsuki Bakugou just admit he knew Kaminari did good work? He pinched himself just to make sure he was still awake. 

Bakugou hadn’t changed that much at all. His appearance was almost identical to the last time he saw him at the airport two years ago. His brash attitude hadn’t left either. 

“I dunno how you’ve managed not to fuck it up yet, you’re probably just getting lucky.” Bakugou scoffed and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Despite the harsh words, Kaminari had known Bakugou long enough to realize the underlying meaning of “Good job. You’re an idiot, but you’re doing something right”. He had a feeling that his knack for profiling came from having to decipher everything that Bakugou said daily. Thinking about Bakugou, getting to the root of his anger… that would be fun to investigate. 

However, Kaminari stuck to his rule: he didn’t profile his friends. Not intentionally, anyway. Looking into Bakugou’s anger issues and pride complex was way too personal, and he wasn’t going to overstep his boundaries.

For now, he was just glad to be surrounded by his friends again, the people that he trusted with his life. Bakugou had been gone for two years, and his presence seemed to slide right back where it belonged. 

It wouldn’t be until later that he realized the return of their former classmates created a false sense of security in the hero world. As glad as he was to be reunited with all of his friends, it only served as a distraction to mask the trials ahead.


	4. Wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whiplash of having that routine taken away hadn’t really hit him until he was sitting in a tea shop with Kirishima. The same Kirishima that he lived with before the internship. That’s when everything started to feel like a dream. Seeing everyone wasn’t the part that felt fake- it was his time in America that felt fake. 
> 
> He couldn’t process the fact that he hadn’t seen these people in two years. It was a crushing blow to his spirit. He was thankful that Kirishima had been the first person he faced. They talked so often it felt like he was never gone in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be my favorite chapter! Although, I do like chapters 8 and 6 as well. Anyway, enjoy a wholesome reunion party Part 2!

Everything felt like a dream. Some part of his mind wouldn’t register everything; it was too much and not enough at the same time. He hadn’t slept the entire plane ride because of the sheer amount of nerves and excitement. 

Izuku wanted to see his mom again, to see his friends again. Yet, getting on the plane to head back home was… somber. Their work in America had just begun, and in a flash- it was over. He made a lot of good friends over there, friends that he promised to keep in touch with, to see again someday. 

There had just been so many heroes in America. At least, it felt like there were a ton. Maybe it had something to do with how much area there was to cover. Whatever it was, Izuku had been starstruck the entire time.

However, no amount of kickass heroes could replace the joy he felt seeing his friends from back home. Class 1A had become family. They all went through so much together. They fought excruciating battles that even the pros struggled to take on, and they came out victorious. No kids should ever be put through what their class went through, but they were all stronger heroes because of it. 

With them, the world’s faith in hero-society returned. Everyone worked so hard to protect the citizens and win the battles, despite being kids. Had it not been for the entire class, the final fight against The League would have ended differently. It was everyone’s heroic actions that sparked a new love for heroes. Society didn’t have to lean on just one ‘Symbol of Peace’ because they knew that they could depend on every hero to deliver on their promises. 

This was the main reason why Izuku fought to remove the rankings, not that he didn’t think he could have been Number One or anything, but after UA, the thought just didn’t sit right with him. There were so many heroes working their asses off who never got the recognition they deserved because they were stuck at the 80th spot. There was also the fact that society tended to create a bigger idea of the ‘Number One Hero’ than there actually was. 

Izuku had idolized All Might, just like the rest of the world. Who wouldn’t? He lived up to his reputation. However, it was as if society had tunnel vision for one hero and once he was gone they didn’t have anywhere or anyone to turn to. 

In all honesty, the rankings just felt like a huge publicity stunt. It was an easy way for certain people to make better money than others. If you had a good P.R. Manager and a decent relationship with the public, then you’d be able to work your way up in popularity pretty easily. Once Izuku figured that out, he knew that the rankings were just a scam.

Of course, people still had a voice and a presence. Heroes who did good work were still recognized for it, but it was more like getting an Oscar for specific actions rather than being compared to all other heroes. For instance, heroes who specialized in natural disasters would be up for different awards than heroes who went after villains. It helped to spread the idea of having faith in more than one person. 

Although, Izuku would be lying if he said he didn’t miss the competition just a bit. He still wanted to be the best. He didn’t know why he felt the need to be so competitive over it, maybe he could blame it on Kacchan. It just felt so good when the people of Japan were upset to watch him leave. Not that he was glad they were upset, but it felt nice to be able to give a sense of security to people, just like All Might. 

On the other hand, Kacchan had also left with him which didn’t help much. He liked to think that they would’ve been at the top spots had the rankings still existed, not that he cared that much...okay fine, he desperately wanted to know if he could’ve beaten Kacchan in the real world. As much as he wanted to know, his need for everyone to be appreciated overrode the desire to be Number One. 

He didn’t need to tell you how Kacchan felt about the whole situation. You could imagine. 

Yeah, life had been pretty weird. He never expected that his childhood friend? Rival? Bully? Anyway, he never expected that their paths would intersect so much. Scratch that, they were walking the same road, but opposite sidewalks. 

Going to the same agency wasn’t intentional. It really hadn’t been. After Lemillion took over Nighteye’s agency, it had simply become the best. Heroes transferred from their own agencies for a chance to work at Lemillion’s. People praised it as being one of the best places to work, no matter what your position was. Izuku assumed a lot of it had to do with Mirio just being a good person in general. He lived up to Nighteye’s final request- everyone at the agency always found something to smile about. 

Well, almost everyone. See, Izuku had always planned on following Mirio. They had become close at UA, and after he graduated, Izuku found himself always going to him for advice. Lemillion was one of the best heroes out there, and Izuku recognized that. His plans had been set from their first fight together at UA. Izuku had no problem smiling and bringing laughter into the world; it was Kacchan who did. 

The reason that he went to Lemillion was because it was the best, and Kacchan only settled for the best. One thing led to another and they both ended up at Lemillion’s agency, which out of respect, he kept the name ‘Nighteye’’. So, no, heading to the same agency hadn’t been intentional. 

Getting scouted by the International Heroes Foundation (IHF) together had also been completely unintentional. 

Lemillion had sent the two of them together to go help out with a villain attacking one of the most populated resorts in the area. The villain was extremely disorganized and simply attacked anyone and anything he could out of pure rage. Thus, when the two of them arrived, one of the buildings started leaning forward, like a tree that had been getting chopped down from the base. There were hundreds of people about to be crushed to death, not to mention the hundreds still inside the building. So, Izuku did the first thing that came to mind.

He caught the building.

Suspending himself in mid-air, he channeled as much strength from One For All as he could and tried to keep the building at bay until Kacchan could evacuate everyone from the building and the area around it. 

Did he mention that the villain was still rampaging around? 

By the time Kacchan finally got everyone to safety, Izuku couldn’t hold the building anymore and he didn’t have anywhere else to go. If he dropped the building, he was going to get crushed, but if he didn’t let go soon, his arms would break and he would be crushed anyway. 

Fortunately for him, Kacchan accidentally hit the villain with too much force knocking him right into Izuku. The force propelled him far enough away to be safe from the collapse. He used Full Cowl to land safely on his feet (Thank God for iron soles), but he couldn’t say the same for the villain. He was pretty easy to detain after that. 

Even though Kacchan will always deny it, Izuku didn’t think that the surprise blast was an accident. He was too smart for that. 

Because of that one mission, the IHF had recognized them. They were offered a free program to do some training with heroes in America where they would be working all over the country doing all types of different work. The opportunity had been too good to resist, but Izuku still mulled over it for days. On one hand, the chance to meet new heroes and work alongside renowned pros from across the globe was enough to make him scream, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to leave everything behind. He still needed to do so much where he was, how could he just get up and leave for two years? 

The final push to say yes came from his talk with All Might. Everyone else already encouraged them to take the offer. All of his friends supported him and told him that he would learn a lot. Maybe it was just Izuku, but talking to All Might always helped him to finally make the decision. Of course, All Might told him to take it too.

“Young Midoriya, you’ve come so far and you’ve done so much here already. Japan isn’t going to leave while you’re away. We’ll all still be here when you get back. You should take this opportunity and learn from it. You never know when you’re going to get another chance like this. It will help you see things from a new perspective. You’ll work with other heroes and see more that the world has to offer. Remember, I met one of my closest friends there. Allow yourself to continue growing. And never forget that I’m proud of you, kid.” 

He called them that night to say yes. 

“Finally, got some sense knocked into that shitty head of yours.” Kacchan had said. 

Together, they left Japan and took off to America. And, even though it was Kacchan, it was nice to have a familiar face. It had been scary trying to get adjusted in an entirely new world. They didn’t know anyone, and they didn’t know where anything was; everything was just so new. After a couple of weeks, they got into a routine. For two years, they followed that routine to a tea. 

The whiplash of having that routine taken away hadn’t really hit him until he was sitting in a tea shop with Kirishima. The same Kirishima that he lived with before the internship. That’s when everything started to feel like a dream. Seeing everyone wasn’t the part that felt fake- it was his time in America that felt fake. 

He couldn’t process the fact that he hadn’t seen these people in two years. It was a crushing blow to his spirit. He was thankful that Kirishima had been the first person he faced. They talked so often it felt like he was never gone in the first place. 

But the party… The party was just… overwhelming. Everyone was there. Every single person Izuku had met in his life were all gathered in one room to celebrate their return. He was just glad Mina didn’t make them prepare a speech or anything. She simply got up in front of everyone and thanked them all for coming. She also mentioned where the drinks, bathrooms, and food were located- a helpful touch.

Being in the room unlocked so many emotions that Izuku didn’t even know where to begin unpacking everything. That’s why he made sure the first two people he greeted were his mom and All Might. Everything had flooded out of him in that interaction alone. He was almost too emotionally exhausted to even attempt to mingle with everyone else, but everyone had come to welcome him back. What kind of hero was he if he couldn’t even face his friends. 

He never looked for anyone in particular; it would have been pointless because he kept getting stopped every time he turned around. It was a good thing that the drinks were free, they were the only thing that kept Izuku sane as the night went on. 

As time went on, he lost track of how many people he talked to. He knew he talked to some of his old classmates, some colleagues, and some older heroes… but there were just so many people, and he couldn’t even find the people he really needed to talk to! 

“DEKU!!”

And somehow, Izuku was on the floor with a heavy presence on top of him, preventing him from getting up. 

“I missed you so much, ohmygod. I can’t believe you’re actually back!”

Oh.

“Uraraka!” 

If he thought his mom and All Might had him drained, this reunion came pretty close. They kinda just laid on the ground for a little bit. Uraraka was crying, and yeah, so was he. But this was Uraraka. He missed her. She had been with him from day one. He loved her just as much as he loved his own family, he didn’t even realize just how much he wanted to, no, needed to see her. It was like taking a breath of fresh air after drowning in an ocean for so long. How could he have left this behind?

They could’ve lied on that floor together for the rest of the night and he wouldn’t have cared. She had her face buried in the crook of his neck, and he rested his chin atop her head. Her hair felt soft and it smelled like strawberries. Was that his favorite fruit? Probably. 

When they finally got up, he glanced a bit behind Uraraka and made eye contact with someone he hadn’t talked to since he left. Denki Kaminari. An overwhelming surge of guilt washed over him. Shortly after he and Kacchan left, Masuyo Akiya, the director and founder of the AU, lost her life in a hostage situation. The villain had killed the two parents and held three kids at gunpoint. His quirk was absorption, which made him immune to anything they tried to throw at him. In the end, to save the kids, Akiya offered him a trade: her life in exchange for theirs. The villain was all too eager to take that deal and Akiya lost her life. She entrusted everything to Kaminari, who had been witness to it all.

The relationship between them could rival Izuku’s relationship with All Might. The thought of losing All Might was… unfathomable. He couldn’t imagine a world without the previous ‘Symbol of Peace’ in his life. That’s why… to think that Kaminari went through something so terrible…

Izuku tried to convey his emotions through the hug. He was ashamed that he wasn’t there for his friend in one of the hardest times in his life. At that moment, time didn’t matter. All Izuku wanted to do was let his friend know that he was there now. If he ever needed anything, Izuku would be available. 

He hoped the hug would convey that… and probably a one on one conversation.

He and Uraraka stayed and chatted at the table for a while. Old acquaintances passed by from time to time, congratulating him on his return. Other than that, it was just him and some of his good friends. He felt his body relax again. Izuku knew that he needed to continue to greet all of the guests, but it was also his party. That meant if he wanted to sit down with some old friends for a few minutes, that’s what he was going to do. 

He might’ve sat there for the rest of the night had it not been for Uraraka.

“Have you talked to Tenya and Todoroki, yet?”

Izuku hadn’t run into either of those two throughout the night. He would’ve remembered if he had.. Another wave of guilt hit him straight in the heart. If Uraraka hadn’t reminded him, would he have just forgotten altogether? 

He shook his head a little, not wanting to get lost in thought. He missed those guys. Iida and Todoroki went through so much bullshit for him. The number of times the three of them got into fights that shouldn’t have happened was pretty high. Iida tried to stop him, bless his soul, but usually, he just ended up joining in. Those were his best friends, of course, he had to talk to them. 

Izuku excused himself from the table and was surprised (or not surprised) to see Uraraka also wanting to tag along. It was to be a challenge locating two specific people amongst the crowd, but hopefully, they could get a good vantage point above everyone. Izuku had a mission, so talking to random guests that he barely recognized took a backseat. He wanted to find Todoroki and Iida as soon as possible. There was that buzz of excitement coursing in his veins at the thought of seeing them in person.

How had he not talked to them first? He was pretty sure that he spoke with Yaoyorozu before, which meant Todoroki should have been close by. He didn’t even think of asking her about him. 

“Okay, so if we go out of the ballroom, I think there’s a staircase that leads to one of the upper levels. That should lead us to the balcony up there.” 

Uraraka pointed to said balcony. 

“Okay, where are the stairs?”

She grabbed his arm to drag him along, “I think if we just go out these doors they should just be around the corner.”

Izuku let her lead the way. He tried to avoid as many conversations as possible by saying he needed to use the restroom, but every so often he got stuck. Uraraka kept trying to drag him, regardless, until they finally made it out of the ballroom safely. 

“Whew. That was kinda exhausting.” She breathed, putting her hands over her knees, “Everyone’s a vulture.”

“They mean well. They’re just a little excited. I mean, I don’t think anyone jumped me as hard as you.”

Uraraka playfully slapped his arm, “Not fair. I have rights since I’ve known you for literally ever.”

“You’re right, my bad. Anyway, where’s this staircase again?”

“Oh,” she looked around for a second, “Uh, I think it’s this way. Let’s go!”

The sound of the party became muffled in the distance as they made their way toward the supposed staircase. The soft click of Uraraka’s wedges echoed throughout the corridor, making the emptiness feel bigger than it was. 

“You know, I think the worst part of you being gone was the fact that everyone always had to remind us of it.”

Izuku blinked, caught off guard, “What do you mean by that?”

She cast him a look from the corner of her eyes, a look that he couldn’t quite place. 

“I mean. I was super excited for you to go, and don’t get me wrong I’m glad you were able to… it’s just that… I don’t know- I was still sad, watching you go…”

“Uraraka…”

She lifted her hands out in front of her, “Really it’s fine. I guess it’s just that I was already really bummed out about not seeing you like every day. And then, the entire city missed you too. It just felt like everyone could only talk about you guys leaving. It just… set a weird mood.” 

Izuku frowned. A weird mood? Could his presence affect the way an entire country felt? He guessed it made sense, in a way. He already felt bad for leaving, was it possible that maybe he made the wrong choice? Would it have been more effective if he just refused the offer? There were people here depending on him, thinking about it, leaving was the stupidest choice he could have made-

“NO! Deku, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry, I thought telling you that would make you feel better because we all love you so much, I thought maybe you needed to hear… ugh, I’m an airhead. Gosh, I’m so sorry-”

Ah, so he had been talking out loud. He needed to break that habit, it got him into more trouble than it was worth.

“You don’t need to apologize. Honestly, I’ve kinda been overthinking everything lately. Coming back here, it almost feels like we never left in the first place, which is confusing. I mean, the internship was… it was great! There’s so much that happened. But, then I keep wondering if there’s more I should have been doing here? Like… it’s like I missed out on so much and I know I’m probably overthinking it, but… I don’t know-” 

He really didn’t know.

“Well. I think that’s human.” 

Uraraka smiled at him with so much warmth, he felt his mouth dry up.

“You’re just tired... I think,” she continued, “You’ve been on a plane for more hours than I’ve been awake, and then you come straight to this party where you have to just face everyone all at once- your body might just be exhausted. It could be messing with your head. Also, change is scary! Let yourself be a little afraid sometimes. You act like the world is gonna end if you’re not always on your A-game.”

She stopped and looked at him fully, “You just spent two years getting adjusted to life there, and now you’ve come back here. It’s like taking a long vacation! You just need a minute to chill out, everything is gonna be fine, we’re all here for you if you need us. You know that, right?”

He knew that. He really did. Even so, his eyes burned and his throat closed up at her words. He was so lucky. She was right. He needed to just chill out. He made the right choice, Kacchan certainly didn’t have any regrets about it, so why should he? 

He nodded at Uraraka because he didn’t trust himself not to break down sobbing if he tried to speak.

“Alright! Then let’s get to that balcony!”

It took him a second to register the fact that they had reached the stairwell door. Uraraka twisted the knob, and at the same time-

“OW!”   
“What the-”

Izuku blinked. From his point of view, it appeared as though the door had opened itself and slammed right into Uraraka’s face. 

“Oh shit! Uraraka I’m sorry, I had no idea you were-”

“Sero?” 

“Wha- Midoriya???”

Uraraka had her hands covering her forehead. That was gonna leave a bruise. Sero and Izuku were caught in some sort of stare off until Sero finally walked forward, hand outstretched.

“It’s good to see you, man! It’s been way too long. Glad to see you get back here in one piece!”

Izuku smiled, taking Sero’s hand, “Thanks! It’s good to see you too! I’ve been told that you and Uararaka have made a pretty good name for yourselves.” 

“Oh, yeah? Well, you know how it is, we do what we can.”

“Okay, let’s just forget about the girl who got a door to the face!” 

They both turned back toward Uraraka.

“Right, sorry. I didn’t know you were right behind the door, otherwise, I wouldn’t have done that.” 

“Did you have to open it so hard!?” 

“I promise I’ll make it up to you, I swear. I’ll do all the incident reports next week, how does that sound?” 

Uraraka considered this for a minute, “...Promise you’ll do a good job?”

“Hey! I always do a good job!”

“Well, the last incident reports beg to differ.”

“Those were… uh-”

“Wait, Sero, what were you doing in the stairwell, anyway?” Izuku asked, tentatively. Knowing Sero, there were a couple of things he could’ve been doing, but the smell was normal and he appeared fine. He just hoped he didn’t ask anything he didn’t want to know the answer to.

“Oh-” Sero frowned, “I was just…” 

Izuku glanced at Uraraka. She peeked back for a moment before focusing back on Sero, who seemed genuinely confused and thrown off by the question. 

“There was-”

Something clicked. 

“Oh, I just got lost on the way to the bathrooms is all! Guess I shoulda asked before just wandering around.”

Sero’s expression returned to normal as if nothing weird just happened.

“Anyway, I’ll catch you guys around! Don’t have too much fun.”

And with that, he sidestepped the pair and walked back towards the ballroom area.

Izuku turned back towards Uraraka. Her expression was fixed on Sero’s retreating form, a look of concern plastered on her face.

“That was…”

“Weird.” Izuku finished.

Uraraka shook her head, “Whatever, we’ll dive into that later. Right now, I just wanna find our friends. C’mon!”

She retreated into the stairwell, gesturing for Izuku to follow. He took one more look back to where Sero had gone. Seriously, what was that all about? 

Whatever it was, Izuku was certain it couldn’t be anything good.


	5. Epiphany

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mmm. Are you sure you didn’t just wanna spend some time alone with me? I mean, I don’t mind being your booty call, but give me a heads up next time so I don’t come in my pajamas.”
> 
> “In your dreams!” Kaminari laughed, throwing a pencil at her. 
> 
> “Oh trust me, we’d be doing a lot more in my dreams.” Ko winked. 
> 
> “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

Kaminari stared up at the ceiling. The sounds of the city rang loud and clear outside his apartment window; cars screeched as they turned rough corners, and sirens wailed in the distance. The noise wasn’t the thing keeping him awake.

After the party ended, he tried to find Sero, not even for the sake of the case, but he just wanted to say hi. Kaminari assumed that he either left early or passed out drunk. Regardless, Kaminari never found him. 

Now, he needed sleep, but his brain wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t help thinking back to the crime scene- how disturbing it was. He kept picturing the faceless victims who endured brutal deaths. God, he’d seen his fair share of fucked up scenes… but this one was just... He didn’t want to think about it. Instead, he needed to focus on how to prevent another death from happening. 

Going through what they had so far, which wasn’t a lot, Kaminari was confident that they were looking for a male. He was a dominant personality with no remorse for the victims that he killed. He was aggressive, he killed in a rage, he wanted to make the victims hurt. He was also organized and calculating, he knew his victim’s routine and planned out his kills carefully beforehand. Age was hard to narrow, but the guy was probably within 25-40. 

He was arrogant. He assumed that he knew better than most people, making it hard to keep a conversation with him. He’d leave most people with an unpleasant impression. He had an easy way to travel around without being noticed, whether that was a part of his quirk or something else, Kaminari didn’t know. What he did know was that the guy had it out for the quirkless people of Japan. This meant he was literally after millions of people.

There had to have been some stressor in the unsub’s life that caused him to hate the quirkless so much. He didn’t seem to have a preference for who he killed... 

Kaminari sighed. There just wasn’t enough information to know the details, however, after tomorrow he was positive that he and his team could give a pretty accurate profile. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t do much if they couldn’t find a place to start looking. The unsub’s movements were hard to place. He killed in one area, disappeared, and then dropped another body somewhere entirely different.

If they could crackdown on his pattern, then they might be able to get ahead of him.

Kaminari turned over for the millionth time. At this point, sleep wasn’t coming to him and he just had to accept that. There had been plenty of sleepless nights; it wasn’t anything he didn’t know how to deal with. He had spent weeks after Akiya’s death, lying awake in his room, wondering if there was something he could’ve done. It plagued his mind day in and day out. 

He remembered the incident clear as day. Akiya had finally been able to track down a killer they had been hunting for weeks. She was determined to get him because he already escaped their grasp once before. 

Kaminari didn’t know the name of the guy. Akiya never spoke it. She said that names gave someone identity, a gift bestowed upon us as kids, a symbol of our humanity. She didn’t think that the killer deserved a sense of identity for his crimes. She said that the things he did stripped him of his humanity, and the only way to gain that back was to ask for forgiveness.

That night, in the small house, he didn’t ask for forgiveness. Kaminari stared straight into his eyes and felt his stomach coil at the sight. His eyes were dead. They say that eyes are windows to the soul, and if that’s true then maybe that killer had no soul. There was no mercy or remorse as he pointed the trigger toward the oldest child. The same child who had to watch her parents get murdered in front of her. 

There was no emotion at all when Akiya offered her life in exchange for the children. 

Kaminari remembered it all in slow motion. He tried to push her out of the way, but her quirk kept him at bay. He heard the words  _ “Get him” _ fall from her lips in a whisper, like a prayer. It only took a moment, and Kaminari apprehended the nameless man while the rest of the team arrived on the scene. 

He watched her get carried toward the ambulance. He heard the three kids screaming and crying for their parents. He felt his teammates rip the killer from him, felt their hands on his shoulders. Everything felt like liquid. His lungs burned, and his body ached as if he had just run a mile. He stumbled, his teammates’ voices were all muddled together, he didn’t know who to answer or what to do.

He remembered the hospital. Watching the monitor, he saw Akiya’s irregular heartbeat and he almost broke down. In her final moments, she reached out to him and took his hand in her own. When she spoke, her voice sounded raw and raspy, 

_ “Kaminari…” She paused. “I need you to take it.”  _

Every word sounded like a struggle, and Kaminari had been so confused by what she was telling him. Even so, all he could do in response was cry.

_ “The agency. I trust you to do good.” Another shaky breath, “I wanted more time. I’m sorry.” She smiled, “I know you’ll be just fine…” _

When the flatline sounded, Kaminari didn’t move. He had stood in that hospital room, clutching Akiya’s hand, desperately hoping for some kind of miracle to bring her back. She was too young, there was so much left in store for her, she couldn’t be dead. Yet, she was taken by a villain who simply killed for the fun of it. 

In that room, he hadn’t a clue what her request had meant. It wouldn’t be until much later that he learned she left the agency to him and only him. He would cry again and claim that there had to be a mistake, but no. There was no mistake, and Kaminari didn’t have time to pity himself. 

That had been a little over a year and a half ago. Twenty months had passed and the pain still didn’t get much easier. He tried to live up to the name she made for the AU. She trusted him to catch the bad guys and make the world better. 

Kaminari threw the blankets to the side and hopped out of the bed. There were still a lot of things that needed to be looked into about the case. He needed every opinion he could get, every answer he could find, every theory he could think of. Hell, even if it was the most ludicrous, unbelievable theory of all time, he needed it! Akiya always said to  _ “think outside the box! Humans are complicated creatures, if you can think of it, our unsub can too”. _

He glanced at the clock on his bedside table,  _ 3:32 AM.  _ Was anyone else awake at this time? Probably not, but if Kaminari didn’t get to work on something soon he was going to implode. He brushed his teeth and got dressed. Throwing some ramen in the microwave, he grabbed his laptop and opened the files he had on the case. 

He hadn’t been expecting much, but it was still disappointing. He was hoping to get a little more after he and Shinso visited the coworkers. He didn’t think that they murdered their quirkless friend, but there had to be a reason why they let her walk home alone. Just because the crime rate wasn’t as high as it used to be didn’t give them any reason not to make sure of their friend’s safety. 

He grabbed his food out of the microwave and sat back at the counter.

He was missing something. There was something so obvious right in front of him, but he just couldn’t see it. It’s like he was staring straight at Hagakure, he knew something was there, but he didn’t know what it was. 

Kaminari took a bite of his ramen and clicked on one of the files. The file contained everything that Ko found out about Ren, including the coworkers’ statements made while filing the missing person report. 

_ “We didn’t walk her home that night, I don’t remember why. I think she said she was going with someone, so she would be fine.” _

_ “Yeah, everything about that night is foggy. Like, I remember where I was and what I was doing, but I just don’t know. I didn’t think we had that much to drink.” _

_ “It was just a little party to celebrate Nero’s retirement.” _

_ “No, I can’t say who she left with… not anyone that we ever saw or knew…” _

_ “No, she left with that guy sitting over in the corner or something!” _

_ “I don’t remember her leaving with anyone…” _

Kaminari frowned. All these people seemed to recollect everything differently. Did she leave with someone or not? The unsub didn’t seem to be the kind of guy you’d leave with unless the profile was off? Kaminari didn’t think it was.

He reread all the comments. He had a list of names that Ko compiled, including their quirk and address, though nothing about any of their quirks seemed too out of the ordinary. One of them could summon fruit as long as it was in a two-mile radius, but that was about the most interesting one on the list.

The statements didn’t make much sense. They were disorganized like they were genuinely confused about their own answers. They couldn’t seem to remember anything clearly… 

_ “It was weird. Like, I could remember who I was and where I was, but the day's event just felt… kinda foggy.” _

Kaminari jumped out of his chair. One of the coworkers said the night felt foggy, just like how Midoriya described the day he got hit with a  _ memory quirk.  _

Kaminari knew it was early, way too early to be calling his team and asking them to do stuff for the case, but honestly, he’d done this before. The only person he wouldn’t wake up was Shinso, that had been way too scary to handle. However, Ko was amazing and usually always willing to help out, and right now he needed her more than anything. 

The phone rang once, twice, thrice, fo-

_ “Unnnnggggg, Kaminari this better be good.” _

“How soon can you meet me at the office?”

There was a pause on the line, and then shuffling. Ko’s response was nervous.

_ “Uhm, I can head there now, why what’s happening? Is it bad?” _

“I’ll explain when we get there, I’ll see you in a minute, alright?”

_ “Huh, yeah sure but-” _

He hung up and walked out the door, leaving his ramen cold.

\---------------------

When he finally got to the office, Ko was standing outside in her pajamas, a look of distress written all over her face.

“Kaminari, please tell me what’s happening, the last time you called everyone here this early a bus exploded.”

He slid his ID out of his pocket and unlocked the doors to the agency, “I think I know what kind of quirk this guy has and I need you to work some magic and get me a list of every guy with a memory-related quirk in Japan.”

Ko followed him inside the doors, “Okay, way too broad, you’ll have yourself thousands of suspects if you don’t get more specific than that.”

Kaminari chewed on his bottom lip. Their memories weren’t entirely erased or anything so not memory erasure… They still knew who they were, so probably not something to do with Amnesia or anything. They all just seemed confused, with some people thinking that they knew something and others being completely clueless.

“Okay, try for quirks that can confuse. Like, it doesn’t necessarily affect the entire memory, but it makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what happened.”

“Give me a few minutes. I’ll also crosscheck for criminal records and make sure they were in Japan at the time of the murders.”

“Don’t let me down, girl.”

Ko yawned while sitting down in her office, “I never do.”

Kaminari busied himself with rechecking things on his laptop. Knowing Ko, he wouldn’t have to wait long, so he tried not to get too invested into anything he was doing. It’s a good thing he didn’t because-

“Okay, so I got like 29 with the type of quirk you’re looking for. Looking at any criminal records narrows it down to 11. Two of them were not in Japan during the first murder, and one of them is dead, so that gives you eight suspects. And yes, because I’m amazing, I already compiled information about them, including pictures. Sending them to you…. Now!”

Kaminari blinked. “Ko, have I ever told you that you’re brilliant?”

“I may have heard it before.” She rubbed her eyes and dropped her face on her desk, “But seriously, I get that you’re in a rush to get this guy, but couldn’t this have waited until the sun came up. I’m exhausted.”

Kaminari cast her a sympathetic look, “I know. It probably could have. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t sleep and the memory thing just kinda hit me. I can’t do any of the stuff you do, so I needed you to do this.”

“Mmm. Are you sure you didn’t just wanna spend some time alone with me? I mean, I don’t mind being your booty call, but give me a heads up next time so I don’t come in my pajamas.”

“In your dreams!” Kaminari laughed, throwing a pencil at her. 

“Oh trust me, we’d be doing a lot more in my dreams.” Ko winked. 

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

She just smiled, “Alright, handsome, you dragged me here to find you suspects, I did that, so now it’s your turn to use your profiler brain and figure out who it is.”

Kaminari sighed and turned towards his laptop, opening the new files he was sent. One of these people could be the guy he was looking for. He had to focus his mind enough to be able to pick the right guy. He opened the files so that they all were laid out on his screen. Eight faces stared back at him.

All of their quirks perfectly fit the description he had given Ko. It was up to him to see if any of them matched the profile.

He started at the top of the list, going through all the information about each of them. Ko had outdone herself. He felt like he knew almost everything about these by the time he finished the last article. He knew things that he didn’t even want to know.

Ko had fallen asleep on her desk, and the soft chirping of the birds signaled the rising sun. For some people, Saturday was a day off, for heroes- it was one of the busiest days.

Kaminari felt his eyelids getting heavy as he listened to Ko’s steady breathing. It hit him that he hadn’t slept  _ at all.  _ Not for even a minute. The birds were singing him a lullaby and the soft lighting made everything feel like a dream. Without thinking, he closed his eyes and rested his head on his hand. 

He woke up to a pat on the back.

“Yo. You awake?”

Kaminari blinked a few times. His eyes squinted at the brightness of the lights. This wasn’t his bed. He tried to turn around but stopped short when his neck exploded in pins and needles. 

“Ah-” He reached up and massaged the spot on his neck. Right. He had fallen asleep after dragging himself to the office to do some work. Perfect. How long had he been out for? What time was it? He finally turned himself enough to face the rude awakener. 

“Okay. I’m gonna assume you’re awake now. You get enough shut-eye?”

Shinso eyed him with a look that may have been concern, or maybe Kaminari was seeing things in his bleary state.

“What’re you doin’ here?” He finally slurred out.

“Well, I work here ya see.”

Kaminari sighed, “I meant like why are you here,  _ now?” _

“Like I said, I work here. Also, I thought you’d be interested to know what the coworkers had to say about the whole situation.”

The coworkers? They weren’t supposed to interview them for…  _ oh shit _ .

“Shit! How long was I asleep for? Why didn’t anyone wake me up?” 

Shinso’s hand came back behind his neck and he cast his eyes to the side, “Listen, man, Ko said that you didn’t sleep well last night. We all know how much you can get into this job, sometimes you don’t do the best job at taking care of yourself. We thought it would be best to just let you catch up on some sleep. Ko already told us what you figured out last night, so the interviews weren’t that helpful anyway. Don’t worry about it…”

Kaminari sighed. He couldn’t be mad, could he? It was his fault for falling asleep in the first place. He had no right to be upset with Shinso… but… it still felt like a little bit of a betrayal. He explicitly stated that he wanted to speak with the coworkers himself, was that too much to ask?

On the other hand, Shinso was right. If the guy’s quirk worked to confuse them all, then it couldn’t help much. 

“None of them were hiding anything, they were all just sad about their friend’s death.”

“Oh, you told them that it was her?”

“Before I left for the party last night, yeah.”

Kaminari nodded. Losing people was hard, and for a moment he was glad Shinso decided to let him sleep through the talks. 

“So, did you already look at the suspects and everything?” Shinso asked.

“Yeah, I need to see their faces again though. I want a full picture of who they are as people. I think we should be able to eliminate a few already.”

Shinso nodded in agreement, “I think you’re right. Some of them don’t fit the profile.”

Kaminari pulled up the pictures on his laptop, this time he went through each one individually. He and Shinso pulled out a few that they knew weren’t the match. When Kaminari got to the sixth picture, he froze.

His stomach twisted in knots and his brain fizzled out. He wanted to throw up. How had he not seen it before? Maybe the lack of sleep messed with his head more than he thought, or maybe it was because, in the current picture, the guy was clean-shaven. Regardless, the person on the screen in front of him was- 

“Hey,” Shinso’s hand found its way onto Kaminari’s shoulder, “are you okay?”

He couldn’t speak, the pit in his stomach, growing every second fueling his anxiety. This couldn’t be happening. How could he have been so close, yet so far?

Shinso snapped his fingers, “Hey! Earth to Kaminari, what’s wrong?”

Kaminari gulped and pointed at the picture on his screen, “Do… do you recognize this guy?”

Shinso frowned and leaned forward to get a better look.

“No. Never seen him before. Why? Do you?”

“Yeah.”

Kaminari’s heart beat faster with the swarm of thoughts in his head. What was this guy doing? What had he been doing  _ there _ ? What business did he have at a-

“Who is it?”

He stopped and looked up at Shinso, pushing down all of his anxiety and questions, he forced himself to say it out loud, “He was at the party last night. I saw him.” 

Shinso blanched, “...what? That can’t be ri-” 

It came out as a whisper. He knew Shinso’s brain was probably going through all the questions he was. How did he get into a party where people needed their ID? Why was he there in the first place, nobody at that party was quirkless, so why? Was he possibly after Bakugou and Midoriya…? 

There was too much to unpack right then and there, but one thing was for certain:

Kaminari found the unsub, and he was hiding in plain sight.


	6. With Friends Like These

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “At least it’s not as bad as Todoroki and Yaomomo,” Sero mumbled as they continued their patrol.
> 
> “Okay, but are we entirely sure that one isn’t true?” Ochako giggled, thinking about all the times those two danced around each other back at UA. 
> 
> “Mina and I have a running bet on how long it takes for them to break and just come clean about it.”
> 
> Ochako laughed, “Oh my god. That’s priceless. How long do you think?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry!! I literally just forgot that I was posting this story online. Fun fact, I wrote all these chapters way back in like March, but decided not to post them until now! The thing is, I didn't think I was gonna post them, and it slipped my mind that the update week was last week and not this week, and even now it's Monday! Anyway, I really enjoyed this chapter. I like exploring different character dynamics, and I think this group will be fun! Again, sorry for the late update, I promise I'll try to stick to bi-weekly!!

The day had barely begun and Ochako was already over it. Their shift wasn’t even two hours in and she and Sero already stopped two pick-pockets, saved a cat from a tree, helped three construction workers out from underneath a pile of rubble, and prevented a biker from being hit by a car. Not that she was complaining. She knew what she signed up for when she decided to be a hero, and she truly did enjoy her work.

She just wished she hadn’t had that extra glass of wine last night. 

At least the hero work made it tolerable. Helping others is life’s greatest joy, right? She didn’t need to fight with any villains or be a household name to enjoy the hero life. The appreciative ‘thank you’ from strangers was all she needed to be content. Although, she would be lying if she said she wasn’t also thankful for the popularity. It gave her the money she needed to help her parents, and that had been her plan all along, hadn’t it?

She supposed she owed some of that to Sero. In the past, she never considered working as a duo with anyone, but during UA, hero teams kept becoming more and more popular. Of course, heroes naturally had to work together anyway. The paperwork just made it fancy and official; it also meant you patrolled with your partner. Honestly, for newer heroes, Ochako thought they should consider making it mandatory.

She and Sero had decided to become partners after one of their fights with the League of Villains. Their quirks just clicked. When Ochako floated debris and rubble from disaster zones, Sero could easily grab it and move it to a safer place (away from the citizens). Somehow, they were able to become extremely popular because of their work, and probably because of their P.R. manager. 

Because they had always been partners, Ochako never once patrolled alone. It was comforting to know you always have someone watching your back. She and Sero built a strong foundation of trust together, and she was proud to say that they were nothing less than best friends at this point, and best friends tell eachother  _ everything.  _

They spent so much time on patrols and doing paperwork together, it was almost second nature to just talk about things with him. She told him about her new apartment, her new pet turtle, the fun dinner date she went on with some guy, how that some guy ended up being the  _ worst _ , her holidays… okay, you get the idea.

The point was, she didn’t do all the talking. Sero was always witty with his remarks; he always made comments throughout her stories and usually ended up telling his own. That’s why despite the business of the day, Ochako knew that something was up.

He was being distant, not listening to what she was saying. It wasn’t affecting their hero work at all, but it started to bother her after she said something particularly funny and all she got in response was a nose exhale.

She made sure no citizen was in dire need of their help before grabbing Sero’s arm, turning him around to face her, “Hey, is everything alright? You seem a little... I don’t know… out of it?” 

Sero blinked at her, obviously caught off guard by the question, “Uhm. Everything’s fine, I think, sorry if I did something.” As he spoke his eyes darted to the side, and he scratched his cheek like an awkward middle schooler.

“Hmm...” Ochako bit her lip, not wanting to make Sero feel pressured into telling her anything. What if it was personal? She wouldn’t want to get involved in business that wasn’t hers to meddle in, but she also couldn’t stand the thought of not being there for her friend. She sighed and persisted in her attempt, “Are you sure nothing’s up? You can talk to me, you know. Whatever it is, I’m sure we can handle it together.”

Sero’s shoulders sagged. His eyes shifted to the side, avoiding any chance of eye contact. It looked like he was embarrassed. Ochako knew that there was something up when they ran into each other at the party the previous night, his behavior in the stairwell was… different. Should she have confronted him about it then? 

Seeing Deku again was just so surreal. She just kind of blew off Sero’s strangeness as him being drunk, but deep down she knew that wasn’t the case. She simply prioritized one friend over another, and that wasn’t okay.

Maybe she should have been more focused on how Sero was feeling that night. She didn’t think she would be able to forgive herself if she had turned her back on a friend in need. Even so, what mattered was that she was there now, and whatever Sero was going through, she’d be there for him.

After a minute, Sero ran a hand through his hair and spoke, “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you, but could you promise me you won’t get mad?”

Mad? That couldn’t be good. What did he do that was so bad  _ she  _ would be mad about it?

“I won’t, I pinky promise!” She said, bringing her fists out in front of her.

Sero took a deep breath and mumbled something that she didn’t quite catch.

“What? Can you say that again?”

“I lo st  my h ero ID. ”

“Huh?!?”

“I lost my Hero ID!” He whisper-shouted, “Like, I needed it to get into the party, so I had it on me then, but at some point, I realized it was just gone!”

Ochako blinked. Oh.  _ Oh no.  _

The human race did not consist of the smartest people. Because humans wanted things to be easy, they created new systems and ways of operating to make life… easier. Of course, they made things like the internet and airplanes, but they also made things like Hero IDs. Ochako always hated them.

Hero IDs were the one-way ticket to everything in the hero world. The ID is what gave people access to their agency, the support building, the private airport, and other ‘heroes only’ establishments. To a hero, that ID must be protected at all costs. If an ID fell into the wrong hands, then they had access to a lot of shit that wasn’t meant for them. That’s why Ochako hated them. To their credit, the only people who knew about Hero IDs were heroes and the government. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a cheap and half-assed attempt at security. (The hero commission was never the greatest) 

“Is that why you were in the stairwell?”

Sero’s face became even more distressed if that was possible. “That’s the thing, Uraraka! I don’t  _ know  _ why I was in the stairwell. I mean… I thought I did? I’m just... “ He shook his head, his hands gesticulating everywhere. “I’m just really confused, and I feel like shit cause I lost the  _ one  _ thing I was never supposed to lose.”

Ochako grabbed his hand to offer him some sort of comfort, “It’s okay! We just need to tell Platinum that you lost it so they can cancel that ID. Don’t stress it’s not that big of a deal!”

He sighed, sliding his spare hand down his face, “Yeah… Yeah, you’re right. I’m just being dumb… sorry.”

“There’s no reason to be-”

“Oh my god, that  _ is  _ the Rescue Duo! I _ told _ you they were a thing!” Came a voice from across the way.

“I know! They look so good together!” 

Ochako dropped Sero’s hand like it was made of hot wax. She felt her face heat up, despite having heard rumors like this before. Hearing them repetitively never made it any easier. She knew she couldn’t control what people said, or how people viewed their relationship; they weren’t bad people for thinking it was like  _ that. _ A lot of hero duos in the past had consisted of married couples, and though the trend was fading and friendly duos were becoming more popular, people still loved gossip.

On the bright side, they never let rumors like that affect their real friendship, and for that she was grateful. She wasn’t the only hero who went through stuff like this, they all did, considering they were basically celebrities, it wasn’t surprising. Uncomfortable? Absolutely! But they all knew what came with their career. Aizawa had told them many times about how much he hated the press. At least he managed to avoid it most of the time. If it weren’t for the money, Ochako might have taken a page out of his book and been a silent hero too.

“At least it’s not as bad as Todoroki and Yaomomo,” Sero mumbled as they continued their patrol.

“Okay, but are we entirely sure that one isn’t true?” Ochako giggled, thinking about all the times those two danced around each other back at UA. 

“Mina and I have a running bet on how long it takes for them to break and just come clean about it.”

Ochako laughed, “Oh my god. That’s priceless. How long do you think?”

Sero smirked like he knew every secret in the world, “I think Todoroki would keep quiet about it forever, but Yaomomo… she’s not a very good liar when it comes to that sort of thing. So I’m aiming for this year!”

Ochako scoffed. Momo may be a terrible liar, but she would have broken by now if she was ever going to say something, “Oh, yeah? That’s only a few months. Honestly, though… I think Todoroki would end up saying something about it, but act like it wasn’t a big deal.”

Sero chuckled, “The dude wouldn’t even realize he’d shaken up half the hero world.”

“What does Mina think, though! She thinks it’ll be longer?”

He cast Ochako a smug look, “No. Her bet is within the next  _ month. _ ”

“Oh shit!” 

“She sorta had the same thought about Todoroki. She thinks that he’ll mention it super nonchalantly in an interview.”

“Imagine Yaomomo’s reaction if he did something like that!”

They both started laughing and doing impressions of what her face would look like seeing the interview. The looks consisted mostly of The Scream, intense shock, lots of O shapes, and Sero pretending to faint. 

The weird mood was back to normal, and Ochako could finally rela-

“DIE!”

Nevermind, her life flashed before her eyes. She had  _ no  _ idea what was happening. All she could do was scream as (what was presumably a villain) came flying at her at rocket speed and slammed into her. The impact caused her to propel backward toward a chain link fence encompassing a dog park. The pain of the fence on her skull felt like a hundred tiny needles poking and prodding at her head.

That was nothing compared to the pain in her face. Everything felt like it was  _ throbbing.  _ Nausea consumed her and she thought she was going to throw up, unfortunately, she must have cushioned the impact for the villain because he got right back up and loomed over her pathetic state menacingly. She felt involuntary tears leak out of her eyes, as she looked up at the beast of a man.

Ochako had been through worse, and there was no way in hell she was going to let this guy make a fool out of Uravity. Ignoring the splitting pains in her face and her skull, she stood up. Her legs protested as shots of pain rode up her entire body, but she was Uravity, and she  _ never  _ backed down from a fight. 

The villain seemed to find this amusing, “How pathetic. A rescue hero thinks she’s tough shit. It’s okay, I’ll make your death beautiful.”

Ochako scoffed, who did this lunatic think he was? It didn’t matter, she was done listening to this.

As the villain charged at her with nothing more than a pathetic blade, she swiftly dodged to the side, grabbing his wrist in the process. Caught off guard, the guy was momentarily stunned giving Ochako enough time to grab the back of his neck as well. She had done this move so many times that it was second nature at this point. In one fatal swoop, she yanked his wrist and forced his neck down to the ground. She didn’t even have to dislodge the knife from his hands, he already dropped it earlier. What an amateur.

“For the record,” Ochako said leaning down closer to his face, “I don’t think I’m tough shit.” He growled from underneath her hold as she placed her lips on the shell of his ear, “I know I am.”

Before the villain could respond, a familiar voice addressed her, “Fuck off Round Face, I didn’t need your stupid help. This guy’s mine.” Ah, so lovely. 

Ochako lifted her head back up to see her  _ favorite  _ person in the world, and Sero followed behind him, tape at the ready to apprehend the villain.

“They let you back out on duty, already?” Ochako asked.

Bakugou sneered, “Why the fuck wouldn’t they?” He frowned, “The fuck happened to your face? Looks shittier than usual.”

The villain stirred from underneath her and Sero went about getting him detained, as she stepped off of him. 

“My face looks shitty because your dumbass doesn’t know where to aim your villains!” 

“Hah?! Pretty sure I know what I’m doing better than you do, but if you wanna test that right now, then that’s fine with me.”

“You broke. My. NOSE!” She stomped up to him, ready to give him a piece of her mind, “You broke my nose AND I stopped  _ your  _ villain.”

“Didn’t ask you to.”

“You didn’t need to.” She stopped, inches from his face. Maybe it was her possible concussion talking, or maybe it was her anger, but she decided to try her luck, “You owe me.” 

She knew it was a dangerous game to argue with Bakugou like this. She couldn’t say that she missed him when he left for America. All the tears she cried that day had been for Deku’s sake, who could spend two years with Bakugou and keep their sanity? She would’ve failed that test. 

Bakugou growled, “I don’t owe you shit.”

Now, the hero in her knew that was true. She would have helped out anyone without expecting anything in return, but messing with Bakugou was just too good of an opportunity. Who was she to waste such a thing? “I could press charges, you know.”

He scoffed, “I dare you to do that. I’ll just break your nose again, make it look uglier than it already does.”

“Oh please, and taint your precious record? You would  _ never. _ ”

“You really wanna test that, Pink Cheeks?”

She puffed out her chest and crossed her arms, that was how people made themselves look intimidating. She also spread her legs out a bit. She read somewhere that guys do that to establish dominance or something and she wanted to see if it was true.

Bakugou stalked over to her and for a moment she thought that he was actually going to take a hit, but instead he reached up grabbed her nose and-

“OUCH! WHAT THE FUCK!” 

“There, I fixed it so now I don’t owe you shit.”

Ochako’s hands flew to cover her face, which was now in ultra pain,“You- you are just! You’re such a- uh” It was hard to gather her words with the new onslaught of throbbing in her skull, “Ugh, you’re just a big meanie head!”

“Careful now, there might be children listening.”

Ochako balled her fists. There was no way in hell she was losing this. She didn’t care that Bakugou had been gone for two years, he still could make her so mad so fast. It was a talent. If she didn’t know any better, she might’ve guessed he had a secret quirk to just piss people off.

“Well, that didn’t fix my concussion, you prick.” She said, her hands still holding her nose, which she now realized had actually been gushing blood. 

Bakugou grimaced, “No fucking way that gave you a concussion. You got glass for bones or something?”

“Or something.” She replied quickly, stepping towards him, “I also stopped your villain whether you asked me to or not. It’ll be easier if you just admit that you owe me.”

Oh, man. If looks could kill, Ochako would’ve been in a casket in an instant. Bakugou was seething. If he could explode her face without any repercussions, she was completely sure that he would have. Still, he closed his eyes and brought his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He let out a deep sigh and put on the fakest (ugliest) smile before looking back at Ochako.

“Fine.” He snapped, venom dripping on every word, “What. Do. You. Want?”

She had to think of something good. She had been blessed with the most precious opportunity in the world, it was almost worth the broken nose and the concussion (she didn’t know if she had one, but her head hurt and she felt hella dizzy). What could she ask for? There were certain things that she knew he would refuse to do, but it had to be something good. Maybe she could ask him to be nicer to Deku? She didn’t have a way to monitor that though. She was having a hard time thinking.

Bakugou clenched his jaw, “Well, if you don’t  _ need  _ anything, then I guess I don’t-”

“Oh! I know what she wants.” Sero said walking over to them, the villain wrapped head to toe in his tape.

Ochako frowned as Bakugou raised an eyebrow, both prompting Sero to continue.

“Yeah… Ochako’s been looking for someone to help out with this new class she came up with to help kids learn some combat tactics. Honestly, you’d probably be good at it, if you could handle the kids.”

Ochako stood, mouth agape. Was Sero insane? Thinking about Bakugou anywhere near children almost gave her a heart attack. What if he accidentally killed one of them for being too annoying? There was no way he had some secret soft side for kids, that was for certain.

On the other hand, it was supposed to be a self-defense class, and if Bakugou was her assistant that meant she’d be demonstrating the moves on him. Throwing Bakugou to the ground repeatedly seemed like a pretty appealing offer. Not to mention, he’d also have to deal with being around kids the entire time… Call her sadistic, but she wouldn’t lie, creating Bakugou’s worst nightmare was her most beautiful dream.

Bakugou’s face was scrunched up in… curiosity?

“So, we’re teaching kids how to fight?” He asked, pensively. 

Sero nodded.

“Are  _ we _ fighting them?”

Sero shook his head.

“How the fuck are they supposed to learn shit then? Fuck, you’re gonna trust Round Face to handle something like this? When do the classes start, I’ll show those kids what a real pro can do.”

Ochako blinked, “So...you’ll do it? You’ll be my assistant?”

He turned his head toward her, lips curling up in a sneer, “Ain’t no assistant.”

Okay, yes she was aware that it was Bakugou, but as distasteful as he was, he was giving her one of the things that she wanted most. Passing down Gunhead’s Martial Arts techniques had been one of her dreams since she trained with him. She couldn’t help the excitement bubbling up in her chest.

“Okay! I just need to send you some paperwork. It’ll be hosted at the Platinum Agency on Saturday mornings from 9-10.

“Only an hour a week? They won’t get that much better.”

“Well, they’re kids, Bakugou. They don’t need much, besides most of the time parents just want their kids to be tired out from activities so they go to sleep when they get home, and-”

_ Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. _

Ochako silenced herself as she and Bakugou glanced toward Sero. He flushed and reached into his pocket, fishing for his cell.

“The fuck? You bring that thing out with you?” Bakugou balked. 

Sero ignored him and answered the call.

“Sero here, what can I-” He paused and frowned, leaning further into his phone. “Calm down, Kaminari, I can barely understand what you’re saying. Who was where?”

Bakugou and Uraraka exchanged looks.

“I mean, I guess it might’ve slipped at some point, but it’s Kirishima, man.”

Another pause.

“What?! Are you serious? You’re sure it’s your guy?” Sero paled. “I’m with Bakugou and Uraraka right now. What do you want me to do?”

Uraraka was desperate to know what was going on. Why did Kaminari always call while on patrol? Is that why Sero always took his phone with him? Nevermind, she’d ask about it later.

“Okay… okay, right. I’ll come by later… bye.”

As soon as he hung up, Bakugou and Uraraka jumped him.

“The fuck was that about?”

“Sero, what’s going on?”

Sero gulped, “We should go somewhere. There’s a lot you guys need to know, but first, let’s get this guy to the police.

Uraraka nodded. She knew Kaminari had a stressful job, but what had made Sero look so terrified? 

Uraraka didn’t have any good feelings about it, that’s for sure.


	7. Unlikely Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tonight? Wouldn’t you want some more help if you need to find this guy tonight?” Bakugou asked, crossing his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side.
> 
> Shinso answered for him, “It’s not that simple, Bakugou. We have to track down who his next victim is going to be. We have to do that by looking at specific behaviors from Hi- uh, our villain, as well as our victims. The best chance we have to find this guy is to know where he’s headed.”
> 
> “How do you know he’s still here?” Ochako piped in. “I mean I trust you guys and everything, but what makes you certain he’ll attack here tonight?”
> 
> “We trust our profile. Kaminari and I think we got this guy pegged. He’s devolving, and…” Shinso trailed off, unsure of his next words.
> 
> “And?” Bakugou pressured, leaning against a desk.
> 
> “And he was at your guys’ party last night.” Kaminari finished, deciding if they were going to tell them about the case, they may as well know everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to give a quick thanks for reading this story! I've really only ever written academic papers and essays, so this is a new kind of thing, and it's... interesting to say the least. The only way to improve is to keep practicing so I'll keep writing this story! Speaking of which, there's only two chapters of the prologue left, can you believe it? So, thanks all for sticking with it, also I promise all the characters mentioned will come in at some point! Just not in the prologue :)

“Dude, seriously, calm down. There wasn’t anything we could do about then, but we know who it is now, so let’s focus on what we  _ can  _ do.”

Kaminari halted his pacing to throw a look at Shinso, who, for the record, was entirely too calm about the whole situation. Did he not realize how big of a deal this was? They didn’t know what the hell was the guy doing at the party, and more importantly, they didn’t know how he got in. 

He should’ve been paying more attention. They could’ve had him. 

The pit in his stomach kept growing. He felt sick. Kaminari had situations where he’d interview unsubs and they’d get under his skin, but that happened to everyone. Normally, they always caught the villain in the end anyway. The thing that bothered him the most was that the guy showed his face in public, in a room full of pros. Seriously, what was he doing there?!

Thinking about it, showing up in a room full of pros was  _ exactly  _ something their villain would do. It fit his profile. He was arrogant, narcissistic, thought he knew better than heroes and the police. Hell, he probably felt like he deserved to be there, amongst heroes. The guy thought he was doing a service to their world, of course, he felt like he had the right to be there. Maybe that’s the only reason he decided to go…

“Kaminari!” 

His thoughts stopped again at Shinso’s voice. 

“I know you’re stressed. Believe me, we all are, but this isn’t your fault. There’s no way you could’ve known that he was our guy. This doesn’t make you incapable of leading this team. We need you here. So please, talk to us. We’re your team, we’re here to help.” 

Kaminari blinked. That might’ve been the nicest thing Shinso ever said to him.  _ No, it didn’t make him want to cry _ . As always, Shinso was right. He couldn’t change the past, there was no point in dwelling on it now. They needed a strategy. They knew who they were looking for, which meant they could get a step ahead of him. They needed to figure out exactly who his next target could be.

Kaminari sighed, lifting his head so he could look at Shinso directly, “Sorry. You’re right. We need to find out who his next victim is gonna be. We can get him, but we have to be careful. We can’t allow him to use his quirk on us, the effects could make us too incoherent to get him.”

Shinso nodded, “Right. We should get some other pros to help us with this. It’s a big job. I mean, his victims could pretty much be anyone as long as they’re quirkless. It’s gonna be hard to pinpoint exactly who we’re looking for, and we can’t just trust heroes on patrol, especially with that quirk.”

Kaminari wasn’t opposed to the idea of getting other pros involved, but he also wasn’t too eager about it either. Not that other pros weren’t insanely talented and strong and could offer a lot of support, but most of them didn’t understand the profiling aspect of hero work. It resulted in a lot of unnecessary casualties, that’s why Kaminari stopped getting other pros involved all together… except for Cellophane, but that was different. He had been taught by Akiya and could profile just as well as anyone at the AU. 

Of course, all heroes were required to get trained in some form of psychology. The bare minimum. They knew about mental disorders, like schizophrenia and OCD, but they didn’t know about  _ behavior.  _ There was so much to understand about people’s behavior, the essence of why the person does what they do. Why does a villain kill? The answer could be found in their behaviors. It was all based on the biopsychosocial model, every aspect of a person’s life contributed to making them who they were. 

Kaminari’s job was simply to… unpack it all. 

Heroes, more often than not, punched first and asked questions later. It was the exact opposite of what Kaminari learned during his internship. To put it simply, working with people outside the AU was frustrating. That didn’t mean he didn’t trust their judgment or disregard their success, but he had a different job to do than them and he needed to make sure they’d let him do it right. 

“I already called Sero.” He said, leaning back on his desk.

Shinso raised an eyebrow, “I meant  _ people,  _ as in more than one. Plural. Multiple.” He enunciated each word.

“Jeez, yeah, I get it. I guess he already let the case slip to Kirishima, so I can call him too.”

“If you call Kirishima, you know Midoriya and Bakugou are gonna come right here with him.”

Kaminari frowned. Having Midoriya for backup would be nice. He’d probably understand the importance of the AU and trust them to do their job. Plus, despite his looks, he was kind of intimidating. Say the name  _ ‘Deku’  _ and people automatically associate it with the defeat of The League of Villains. Honestly, Kaminari might’ve called him anyway.

Bakugou on the other hand… No. There was no way he was going to let Bakugou anywhere near this case. AU cases required patience and delicacy, two things he knew Katsuki Bakugou did not have. Not to say he wasn’t extremely skilled and smart, but his short fuse would be a hindrance to the case, and Kaminari couldn’t afford that. Nobody could. 

He also didn’t want to risk Bakugou’s temper with the victims’ friends and families. 

So yeah, “We’ll just tell Kirishima and Midoriya to keep quiet about it.”

“So… Midoriya gets to come.” Shinso smirked. “And Bakugou doesn’t. Awesome, I can live with that.”

“Hey, it’s not like I don’t respect him or anything, but would  _ you _ want him here?”

“Oh God no. He gives me worse headaches than some of the cases we work on.”

Kaminari couldn’t help the snort that escaped his lips, “Well, in any case, we still need to figure out who our next victim is.”

“You don’t think they could’ve been at the party, do you?” Shinso asked.

Kaminari shook his head. The thought had crossed his mind, but everyone at that party was a hero or a sidekick or something; they all had quirks. No one there fit the profile of the victims, at least no one that he knew of. They all had to have Hero IDs, though… unless they were-

“Shit, do we know if any heroes brought friends or family? Anyone who couldn’t show Hero IDs cause they didn’t have one. Do we know if they all had quirks?”

Shinso frowned, “I’m not sure.”

“Oh, that’s no problem for me, boys!” Ko’s voice rang from her office. “I’ve been listening the whole time, sorry not sorry, and I can just pull up every hero who checked into that party and see if anyone in their family is registered as quirkless. I’m gonna need a couple of hours, but as soon as I know, you guys will too!”

Kaminari smiled, “Ko, you’re a goddess among mortals.”

“Don’t I know it! Thank me later!” She winked and closed her office door.

Shinso collapsed in an office chair and stretched his arms above his head, “Well I guess that’s covered. What are we supposed to look for?”

“He’s still in this city, isn’t he? I mean, if he showed up to that party, then he’s probably going to need to kill before he leaves. He was already devolving by the third victim, and if he thinks he needs to prove his worth as the hero he thinks he is, my guess is that he’ll kill soon.”

“How soon are we talking, Kaminari?”

“If he really does think of himself as a hero, he might break his pattern of analyzing his victims before he kills them. If he does that then-”

“He might kill as soon as tonight.” 

Kaminari nodded, “Let’s just hope he doesn’t. The chances of us figuring out the next victim before the end of the day is pretty much zero.”

They both fell silent at that, what was there to say? All they could do was rack up a list of as many quirkless people who lived in the city. Time wasn’t on their side, but they needed  _ something _ , anything to get the ball rolling. Unless Ko found someone at the party, they didn’t have any stable leads.

They knew that his name was Hiro Ichigo. His father had left him and his mother when he was only five years old. At age eight, some petty thieves in their neighborhood accidentally murdered his mother through improper use of their quirks. He was sent to live with his grandfather on Nabu Island and stayed there until his last year of middle school. When he and his grandfather moved to the city, Hiro enrolled in a local high school for general studies. Shortly after graduation, he fell off the grid. He had no records, and Ko couldn’t find a single thing on him. However, she had found out that the grandfather passed away two months ago due to terminal illness. 

Two months ago was also when the killings started. Kaminari and Shinso reasoned his grandfather’s death as the stressor. 

Ko also tried to track down his father but found out he was killed in a drunk driving accident a year after he left his family. He had been the drunk driver.

So, their knowledge of the villain’s history was quite expansive. The grandfather that died was his dad’s dad. His mother’s parents were both deceased before he was even born. It would be hard to do their job with no people alive who really knew Hiro. The whole basis of profiling was to get to know their villain, but with no family or friends to try, they were at a loss. 

On the other hand, Kaminari was pretty sure they knew exactly who Hiro was at this point. Hiro was a child who got the shorthand of the stick, who never really got a chance in life. Did Kaminari mention that Hiro’s mother was quirkless? His theory was that Hiro resented his mother for being unable to protect herself against a few stupid kids. If she had been stronger then maybe Hiro wouldn’t have had to live the kind of life he did. Kaminari suspected that the grandfather wasn’t the nicest person in the world, he’d have to tell Ko to get more info on that. 

“We should start looking through the list of all the people registered as having no quirk in the city.” Shinso finally said, breaking the silence.

Kaminari nodded, pushing himself off the desk and walking towards his laptop, “If you recognize anyone… that might be our best bet.”

“Do you think it’s more likely he’ll go after women… with his whole, blaming his mom thing he has going on?”

“No.” Kaminari grimaced. “I’m pretty sure this psycho goes after anyone he thinks is weak. To him, not having a quirk is like a pillar of weakness. He doesn’t think they have a place in this society. He’s going to go after whoever’s available.”

Shinso made a face somewhere between exhaustion and disgust and turned his attention to the stack of files on his desk. 

Kaminari opened the files on his laptop. Ko sent them an extensive list of people without quirks in the city. The number of names seemed infinite. Even with only twenty percent of the population being quirkless, that was still twenty percent of billions of people. The city was huge and therefore the population was huge, which meant a lot more names on that list to go through.

He clicked on the first name-

_ CRACK!  _

“I just wanna know what the fuck is going on here. If it’s important, then you’re gonna want me to know what’s going on. You think I can’t handle it or something?”

For about the millionth time in the past 48 hours, Kaminari’s stomach dropped. There was no way this was happening. What the hell did Sero tell him? Why did Sero keep telling people things? Why was Bakugou here  _ now _ ? 

“Bakugou, calm down! Sero said that it wasn’t super important anyway, let’s just go and let them handle it.”

Okay, so the whole gang decided to come to ruin Kaminari’s case. That was just what he was hoping for. 

“Guys! Seriously, you aren’t supposed to be here!” 

“Tell me how the fuck you were gonna get in here without your ID, idiot!”

“I- Hey! Tha- That doesn’t have anything to do with-”

“Bakugou, let’s GO. We’re not supposed to be here…”

“Stuff it, Cheeks! He’s hiding something and I wanna know what.”

Kaminari shoved his head into his desk and let out a long groan. Shinso dared to laugh at him.

“Oh boy, this just got a lot more fun.” He said, putting down the file he had  _ just  _ picked up. He then stood up and waved down the three UA graduates that disturbed the peacefulness of the office.

If Kaminari had a Death Note, Shinso’s name would be all over it. He’d give him every single death possible. Anything to get him away from this situation. Sero was supposed to tell Bakugou and Ochako that Kaminari needed him for a second opinion on a case he was working on, so why did they follow him here?

“Eyebags… what the hell are you doing here?” Bakugou asked when he finally made his way to them. 

“Ah, Bakugou. It’s nice to see you too, how was America? I don’t think I had the pleasure of running into you at the party last night.”

An icy tension filled the room.

“Kaminari, I’m sorry. They kinda overheard the entire phone call I had with you and they didn’t buy the story.” Sero said from behind Bakugou, who whirled around upon hearing this.

“So you were hiding something!” 

Sero’s eyes widened and he quickly brought his hands to cover his mouth.

“Bakugou!! It’s none of our business. I’m sorry you guys, we’ll get out of here in a second-”

“Shut it, Cheeks, we ain’t leaving until we know what the hell’s going on.”

“But-”

“FINE!” Kaminari snapped, standing up and closing his file. “Bakugou, you’re right, something is going on, it’s a case. It’s a fucking serial killer case that I’ve been on for the past month, since the second kill. It’s brutal and gross, and I need to catch this guy before another body drops. To ensure that this villain doesn’t get the attention he wants, we kept it on the down-low, forcing him to keep coming back. We didn’t let the media know that the three murders were connected, otherwise, he might’ve dipped. So, if you’ll excuse us, I need Sero so we can get to work to stop this guy cause he’s probably gonna go after someone in this city  _ tonight _ !”

He exhaled a deep breath, frustration boiling over just a bit. 

Bakugou’s face was pulled into a frown like he was thinking deeply about something. Ochako had a similar look, but it was laced with concern. Sero had already known, but his expression was guilty, probably because he blamed himself for the two others tailing him. Although, Kaminari figured that Bakugou would have followed anyway if he thought anything important was going on. 

“Tonight? Wouldn’t you want some more help if you need to find this guy tonight?” Bakugou asked, crossing his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side.

Shinso answered for him, “It’s not that simple, Bakugou. We have to track down who his next victim is going to be. We have to do that by looking at specific behaviors from Hi- uh, our villain, as well as our victims. The best chance we have to find this guy is to know where he’s headed.”

“How do you know he’s still here?” Ochako piped in. “I mean I trust you guys and everything, but what makes you certain he’ll attack here tonight?”

“We trust our profile. Kaminari and I think we got this guy pegged. He’s devolving, and…” Shinso trailed off, unsure of his next words.

“And?” Bakugou pressured, leaning against a desk.

“And he was at your guys’ party last night.” Kaminari finished, deciding if they were going to tell them about the case, they may as well know everything.

Ochako gasped, and Bakugou’s expression turned sour (sourer than usual). 

“He was where?” Bakugou practically growled.

“At the party. Listen, Shinso and I didn’t know at the time, but we do now. We’re pretty sure he was there because he feels like he’s one of us. He believes he’s ridding us of the weaker weeds of society. Essentially, he’s disillusioned himself into thinking he’s a hero- purifying our world of those unworthy to live in it.” Kaminari was definitely giving the shorthand version of the profile.

“So he’s just killing anyone weaker than him? How does he even decide that? Oh God, please don’t tell me he goes after women and children-” Ochako’s hands were playing with her hair, a nervous habit.

“He’ll go after anyone.” Shinso put his hands in his pockets. “As long as they’re quirkless.”

To Kaminari’s surprise, Bakugou stiffened at this. It was subtle, almost invisible if someone wasn’t trained to see it, but Kaminari did. He was positive Shinso probably noticed it too. Behavior like that could have meant a couple of things, but he decided not to unpack that… for now.

Ochako scoffed, “What a creep! How could you kill someone over something as stupid as-”

“Not having a quirk…” Sero sighed. “It’s gross.”

An unsettling silence encompassed the room. The sun seemed to hide behind the clouds as the only source of brightness in the room became the fluorescent overhead lights. The sounds of the office became obsolete as each of the heroes got lost in thought. 

It was Bakugou who finally broke the silence, “Okay. What can we do?”

Kaminari sighed and sat back down, facing away from the trio, “Honestly, I don’t know. Pray? We’re checking everything right now to see who his next victim might be, but I can’t say we’ll find out who it is. Unless someone quirkless could’ve been at the party. Ko’s checking that right now.”

“What’s this guy’s quirk?” Bakugou questioned, and Kaminari heard him move from the desk and step forward a bit.

“Confusion,” Shinso replied. “The description is a little vague, but we’re pretty sure he can distort your memory for the period that you interact with him.” He made a wavy motion with his hand, “All the victims we spoke with this morning didn’t have a clue what was going on the night she was killed, but only at the bar. Before and after, their memories were perfectly fine.”

“So he only interacted with them at the bar…” Ochako reasoned, pulling her hand up to her chin. 

“Yup. They all have a different idea of what went down that night and we have no way of knowing what’s true and what’s not.”

Sero coughed, “Uhm… what about if his quirk got used on one person. Like... what would happen then.”

He looked uncomfortable, and as he spoke, Ochako’s eyes widened in fear.

“I guess it’d leave the one person confused. Hopefully, none of us have to deal with that, if his quirk takes effect immediately upon contact, it would hinder the case.” Shinso said casually.

Ochako glanced at Sero. He gulped, now looking more agitated than before.

“Oi, spit it out, Tape Arms, you look like you gotta shit or something.” 

Sero scratched his head nervously, “Well, it’s just that… I don’t know. At the party last night. I remember walking in with Ochako. We split up so she could look for Midoriya and I could go get us drinks. Uhm- I got a drink… I think, but my memories are really....”

“Confusing.” Kaminari supplied.

“Yeah… and it’s weird cause I remember sorta where I was and what was going on, but at the same time, I have no idea. The next thing that’s clear to me is bumping into Ochako at the staircase. I don’t have any clue what I was doing there.”

Shinso cursed.

Kaminari clenched his fists at his sides,  _ so he wasn’t just scoping out his new target. He was after something! But… What did he need Sero for? _

“Oh my God!” Ochako gasped. Everyone turned to her, but she was staring at Sero, the horror in her eyes increasing tenfold, “Your ID! Sero, did you have your ID after the staircase!?”

_ What?! _

Sero blanched, his mouth slightly agape, “...No… I- I don’t think I did…”

_ Fuck. _

“I- I’m sorry. I didn’t- I…”

“No, Sero, don’t feel bad. This isn’t your fault. He could’ve chosen any hero, we would’ve all fallen for his quirk. You just got unlucky.” Kaminari tried to ease Sero’s guilt; the poor guy was having a rough time. 

“Okay...” Shinso bit his lip and turned to address Kaminari, “This doesn’t fit the profile. If this guy was just working to fulfill his own cause, why does he need a Hero ID? What’s that gonna help him with?” 

Kaminari had no clue. He thought he had this guy pegged. They pretty much knew his whole life story, but if he hadn’t been after a target at the party… What was he after? A stolen Hero ID wouldn’t get you very far, people would realize it wasn’t who it was supposed to be. Although, with the whole confusion quirk… Kaminari supposed anything was possible.

“This villain. He’s trying to purge the world or something stupid like that, yeah?” Bakugou asked, without needing an answer, “Wouldn’t having access to the Hero Databases help him find the people he’s trying to kill. I mean, we’ve got access to a lot of shit. People registered as being…” He paused. “Not having a quirk would have to be in there.”

Kaminari considered that. Usually, unsubs who were devolving weren’t as meticulous about their next kill. They went after the first person that worked to complete their fantasy, whatever that may be. This behavior was strange, and though Bakugou had a good point, Kaminari didn’t think that was the case.

Again, Shinso beat him to the punch, “No, it isn’t that simple. If he was trying to get into the databases for more info, he would’ve done it sooner. His plan was already extremely organized, why would he risk placing himself in the middle of a bunch of pros to ruin something that was already going well for him?”

Sero spoke as if under a spell, “Because the victims were a prerequisite… no- uh, a distraction. They were a distraction to whatever he was really after.”

Ochako frowned, “Huh? Guys, I’m sorry I’m a little lost.” 

“He profiled us. He knew what we were going to be looking for in the victims, he knew how we were going to profile him. He  _ knew _ . I don’t think we know this guy as well as we thought we did.” Shinso ran a hand through his hair, agitated. 

Kaminari shook his head, “No, the profile is right, trust me on this one.” It was something else... something that didn’t quite make any sense. “He’s organized, but not like that. The murders were too brutal, he has a hatred for the quirkless. There’s something that we’re missing. I feel like it’s right in front of us and we’re just too blind to see it.”

“Maybe he’s not doing this alone,” Bakugou whispered. 

Everyone turned towards him, confusion lacing everyone’s face.

“If you guys are saying he’s too crazy to change his style now, then maybe someone asked him to do this. His quirk is perfect for it, right? So maybe a deal or something was going on.” 

That… made a lot of sense. If someone recognized and empathized with what this guy was doing, then they might have a bigger problem on their hands than they originally thought. Villains coming together under ideals… yeah, that ended well last time. 

Whoever told Hiro to use his quirk for them, had to offer something in return. They had to offer him something to crave his desire to kill. For a psychopath, the desire to kill is so strong it might be all that they think about. The thought that someone could offer him something to overrun that desire was enough to give Kaminari chills.

“This just keeps getting better…” Shinso mumbled.

Before anyone could say anything else, Ko’s door swung open and she looked utterly panicked.

“Hi!!! So sorry, I was eavesdropping again, and I heard that you, Cellophane, lost your ID- And well, if you can hack into the hero systems network, you can get access to every hero’s ID, including when and where it checks into certain places- Anyway, sorry, uhm- I decided to track yours because it sounded bad and I just got a hit! Your ID just checked into a hero agency two hours ago.”

Everyone in the room stilled.

Quietly Kaminari spoke up, “Which agency?”

A pause.

“Nighteye.”


	8. Way Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eri’s gaze softened as she listened to Katsuma’s rambling. He worried so much about so many things, but she supposed that just meant that it proved how deeply he cared. Unfortunately, there also wasn’t much she could do to lessen his nerves, so she did the best thing she could think of. 
> 
> She reached out her hand, “Here! Let’s walk in together and I can show you around a bit. That way, you won’t be as nervous, because I’ll be right there with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that it has been like a month since I've posted! I wrote most of these chapters about a year ago, but I hadn't finished this one and I needed some time to get some inspiration. Sorry if it doesn't flow as well with the rest of the chapters, as it has been a while since I've had to do any new writing for this story!

Eri slammed her head on the table after struggling to do her homework for the past four hours. Instead of hanging out with her classmates, she had to be doing stupid class work that she had been procrastinating for the entire week. It’s not that the class was all that difficult or anything, but she just didn’t have the motivation to be doing work at the moment. English was just so boring. There were all these stupid rules and nothing made any sense; she didn’t like it or understand it for that matter. 

On the other hand, she really needed to finish it so she could move on to her more fun work from her homeroom teacher, Kamui Woods. He was new to the whole teacher scene, after spending nine years doing only pro hero work he decided to take on an extra job as a teacher at UA. He said that he learned a lot of important things that he wanted to teach promising new heroes. Woods was pretty good at his job and the class seemed to like him enough, but his Class 1A would never compare to Aizawa’s when he was still a teacher. 

Everyone in Japan knew about Class 1A from _that_ year. Aizawa had been their homeroom teacher; he whipped them into shape and helped them become the heroes they all are today. A part of Eri wished that Aizawa was still a teacher, but the other part of her knew that taking the principal position had been a good decision. The rest of the staff encouraged him to take on the position, insisting that his care for the students made him the perfect candidate.

Eri agreed. 

She didn’t remember much from the day he got the job. She was only eight or nine at the time, but the battle between the League and the heroes resulted in plenty of casualties. Those casualties included the deaths of both UA staff and students, and the old principal Nedzu had been one to sacrifice himself in the name of his students. She remembered everyone being sad and scared. She remembered having faith in the ones that saved her life. She remembered watching the news footage of some of the fighting, seeing Mr. Deku and all of his classmates unwilling to give up. It inspired her to decide that she wanted to be a hero too. She wanted to help kids like herself and make the world a better place. She wanted to be like Mr. Togata and Mr. Deku. 

Her quirk was tricky. She knew that. Everybody knew that. The ability to rewind human beings to a previous state could be used for the greatest good and the greatest evil. She dealt with her fair share of villains trying to get their hands on her quirk. Learning to protect herself was mandatory, but she knew she wanted to try to protect others as well. She wanted to save people. Her quirk could be helpful, and Mr. Deku taught her that a long time ago. 

That’s how she found herself training to become a hero. It was difficult because she had to be extremely careful with everything she did, but eventually, she got to a point where she could control her quirk. The new level of control and dedication helped her get into UA.

Within a new sea of people, she found that she wasn’t the only person inspired by the heroic efforts of the old students of UA. Everyone in the class watched the same fight she had when she was little. They all experienced the same energy and passion radiating off the young heroes on their screens. People talked about how awesome All Might’s debut had been in the past, but Eri’s first day at UA was filled with chatter about the “Original Class 1A” and how they had a tough name to live up to. 

She wondered what would happen if she broke it to the class that she knew Deku personally. His name held an air of awe and respect, and if the class knew that she had his phone number then they might all freak. Of course, she would never brag about something like that. Nope, not her. She had no desire to tell her classmates whatsoever… okay… maybe a little. Or maybe a lot... UGH, fine! She wanted to rub it in _so_ bad, but then she’d have to explain why she had his number, and then everything would come up. It was better if she just kept quiet.

To her surprise (or maybe not?) She wasn’t the only one in her class who Mr. Deku saved.

During the exams, she’d met a quiet boy named Katsuma Shimano. He seemed super nervous, but he had this determined look in his eyes that reminded her of the look Mr. Deku had given her when she was a little girl trapped in Hell. From that alone, she knew he was going to be a good hero.

The exam process had changed quite a bit in order to be inclusive to all types of quirks, however, the robot section was still a part of it. Eri didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to be doing during that part because her quirk only worked on people. She almost panicked until she saw Katsuma… who wasn’t destroying robots at all.

He was using his quirk to heal people who were injured.

Present Mic hadn’t said anything about helping other people, but wasn’t that the essence of being a hero? Watching Katsuma help others without trying to get any points for himself struck something within Eri and she decided that’s what she would do too. She focused on people who were in serious danger and rewound them to a position where they could be safer and form a better plan. 

By the end of the exam, she and Katsuma both found themselves without a single point. Still, when the final results were released they both made it in on rescue points alone. She called Mr. Togata and Mr. Deku immediately.

In conclusion, she and Katsuma became really good friends. They even kept matching Deku chains on their bags! Of course, she had some more of his merch in her room… okay maybe a lot more, but that's beside the point. The point is that she and Katsuma admired heroes, especially the ones who had saved their lives as children. They were the new carriers of peace and- 

“Eri? Are you still working?” Katsuma asked, walking into the common room holding a tray of cookies. 

She sighed, resting her head in her hands, and sent him a look that conveyed her emotions to the best of her ability. Something like _NO! I need to do homework, but instead, I’m thinking about Mr. Deku and how cool he is!_

Katsuma gave her a gentle smile and set the tray down on the table, “We made some cookies to celebrate Kahn’s birthday. I thought you might want to try some.”

Those cookies smelled _amazing._ As soon as he set the tray down, Eri’s mouth flooded with saliva. Only then did she realize that she hadn’t eaten anything for the entire time she’d been doing homework. She supposed she could take a quick snack break. 

Katsuma chuckled lightly as she grabbed four cookies off the tray immediately. She decided to move from her position on the floor to the couch- a much more suitable place to get comfy and snack. 

Katsuma reached over to grab the remote and turned to Eri, “Is there anything specific you wanna watch?”

Cheeks full of cookies and crumbs decorating her chin, Eri simply shook her head. 

“Okay, I’m just going to flip through some channels then. If you see something you like just tell me to stop,” Katsuma said, his eyes locking to the screen in front of them. 

As soon as the TV turned on Eri screeched from the back of her throat and almost choked on the remnants of cookie in her mouth. Katsuma dropped the remote and asked her if she was okay, but all Eri could do was choke out a soft, “Look!!” while pointing to the scene on TV.

It showed a fight taking place a few blocks away from the school building. Though to Eri, it wasn’t just any fight because she recognized the hero defending the people. She would recognize him anywhere. Even if he just appeared as a flash of green dancing across the screen, she knew. 

It seemed as soon as they caught the fight on camera, it was over. Deku had apprehended the villain and was immediately swarmed by the press. His fans crowded the street and everyone cheered and applauded him, congratulating him on his return to Japan. 

Eri smiled. 

She’d been watching him through a screen for _so long_. Now he was back in Japan and she’d be able to go see him whenever she wanted to. The thought made her smile even wider and she made a mental note to grab some candy apples later. They were her favorite treat to share with him. 

“He’s so awesome,” Eri heard Katsuma whisper, his eyes still glued to the screen in an almost hypnotic trance. She agreed. Deku was the best of the best. He inspired people around him to be better and did his best to make sure everyone felt safe and protected. He was the incarnation of hope and determination, and she wanted to be just like him.

She continued to watch the rest of the coverage of the fight scene. There had been no infrastructural damage and no innocent people harmed. Apparently, the villain was some guy with a quirk that allowed him to summon undead armies and he planned to rob some banks with his band of skeleton soldiers. Deku managed to apprehend him in a matter of one minute, forty-three seconds. Almost a new record! 

As soon as the news changed subjects, Katsuma broke from his trance and turned to Eri, “He’s back in Japan now,” He said it as a statement, not a question.

Eri nodded. She knew that he had gotten back yesterday, Lemillion told her about the party that night. She wasn’t allowed to go because of school, but since it was the weekend, maybe it would be okay for her to go to the agency? Her homework could always wait another day, besides, she had already finished most of it. 

“I’m gonna go see him.” She decided. 

Katsuma stood up so fast that Eri thought he might have inherited Deku’s quirk for a second.

“Eri, please let me go with you!” He practically screamed, clapping his hands together and squeezing his eyes shut. “I haven’t seen him in forever and I doubt that he’ll recognize me, but I just _have_ to see him. I thought I might get the chance to meet him again at UA, but then he’d already gone to America and everything, and I..”

Eri blinked. She’d told Katsuma about her relationship with Deku because he was trustworthy and she knew he wouldn’t babble about it to anyone else. He never told anyone his history with the hero either. She’d already planned on asking him to come along, but hearing him ramble on and on about why he wanted to go was kind of endearing. 

“Katsuma!” She raised her hands in a placating gesture. He stopped his speech and peeked his eyes open. “Of course you can come, silly! I’m sure he’d love to see you again! I’d also really appreciate the company.”

Instantly, Katsuma’s eyes brightened and he clasped his hands together in front of him, “Ah! Thank you so much, Eri! This is gonna be great, we-” He stopped suddenly and combed a hand through his hair, “I need to get his autograph!” 

Eri laughed. _Of course._ Katsuma was such a fanboy about every hero, but Deku was his favorite. Apparently knowing the hero personally meant nothing if he didn’t have the signature scribbled down on one of his belongings. In Eri’s opinion, a signature didn’t hold a candle to Deku’s hugs. 

“Who’s autograph?”

A new voice caused both Eri and Katsuma to glance toward the kitchen where another boy in their class stood in the doorway. 

“Hey, Kota!” Eri waved.

Kota nodded in return and stalked toward the couch. Once he was close enough to lean on the side, he did so and raised an eyebrow at Katsuma, “So, who’s autograph are you getting?”

Katsuma paled and tapped his index fingers together, eyes darting around the room nervously as he attempted to think of a response, “Oh, uh- just some new hero on the news. He had a- a really, uhm, cool fight?”

Eri wanted a hole in the ground to swallow her up. Katsuma couldn’t lie if his life depended on it. There was no way they could escape Kota’s suspicion without telling him the truth. It’s not that Eri wanted to hide her relationship with Deku and Lemillion from her friend, she really liked Kota, but he might not understand it. If she had to explain why she knew Deku, then she’d also have to explain a lot of stuff that she’d rather not get into.

Kota narrowed his eyes, “Why are you being so weird about it? I don’t even care, just forget it.”

Eri breathed an internal sigh of relief. At least that was one less thing she had to worry about. 

Katsuma gave a nervous laugh, “Oh-okay. Uhm, well I need to go get some stuff ready for today… So I’m just gonna-” he stood up from his place at the couch and shot Kota some lame finger guns while backing away towards the elevators. He definitely needed to work on his people skills.

Kota cocked an eyebrow as Katsuma entered the elevator then turned toward Eri, “What’s his deal?”

Eri shrugged, “I think he’s just excited about anything heroes do.” 

Kota grunted in response and took Katsuma’s previous seat on the couch. His eyes traveled to the TV, where some Hero Network (HN) officials discussed Deku’s fight. Eri watched as Kota’s lips slowly turned up at the corners. She smiled softly to herself. Today would be a good day.

************************************************************************************************************

Eri took a deep breath. The cool autumn breeze circled around her, causing her hair to cascade out in all sorts of directions. It might have been an aesthetic picture, if it weren’t for all the hair winding up in her mouth. She grimaced as she brushed her air out of her eyes and plucked stray strands from her teeth.

Taking another breath, she pulled her hands into fists and turned to Katsuma… who appeared to be… frozen? 

His hands were clenched to his backpack straps so tightly that his knuckles were white, and his eyes were the size of saucers. His jaw was slack, allowing room for his breathing which had become insanely heavy. The only thing that showed any sign of movement was the enormous rise and fall of Katsuma’s chest. He was clearly in some distress.

She couldn’t blame him though. From the outsider’s point of view, Nighteye Agency was huge! Standing in front of it still made Eri feel a little out of place- even if she had been here a million times before. 

The building itself was around eight stories, holding offices and workstations for heroes to complete paperwork and receive calls. There weren’t many windows surrounding it, as is custom on hero zones. They needed privacy. There was some valuable information kept in the databases of hero facilities, and those had to be protected at all costs… even if it meant no sunlight on a beautiful autumn day.

Eri waved a hand in front of his face, “Hello? Earth to Katsuma!”

He blinked once and whipped his head around, looking like a deer in headlights, “Eri… I’m- I- like. I’m nervous. Should I be this nervous? My hands are a little sweaty. Do they feel sweaty to you? Ohmygod. There are so many heroes here, what am I supposed to say to them? What if I embarrass myself? What if they don’t think I’m qualified to be a real hero? What if-” He barely stopped to breathe.

Eri’s gaze softened as she listened to Katsuma’s rambling. He worried so much about so many things, but she supposed that just meant that it proved how deeply he cared. Unfortunately, there also wasn’t much she could do to lessen his nerves, so she did the best thing she could think of. 

She reached out her hand, “Here! Let’s walk in together and I can show you around a bit. That way, you won’t be as nervous, because I’ll be right there with you.”

Katsuma’s grip loosened on his backpack. Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed Eri’s hand with a small smile and slightly reddened cheeks, “Thanks…” 

Eri beamed. Gripping his hand, she walked up to the doors and swiped her card. The button glowed green indicating that they were now unlocked. As soon as she pushed open the door with her spare shoulder, the smell of peaches wafted into her nose. Lemillion was a big fan of the fruit and thus had many peach-scented air fresheners. 

“Oh my, look who we have here!” 

Eri looked up towards the receptionist at the front desk. She had become well acquainted with him over the past couple of years, and he was easily one of her favorites at the agency. He always snuck her caramel candies on her way out. 

“Hello, Mr. Grey!” She said, waving with her free hand, “How are you today?” She asks after approaching the desk with Katsuma in tow. 

“I’m doing pretty good thanks for asking! You here to see Lemillion?” 

“Actually…” She hesitated, maybe she should have called to see if Deku was even here today. What if he had some really important things to do and she and Katsuma were just barging in. 

Mr. Grey chuckled, “Oh I see. He’s with Lemillion in his office right now if you want to go in there, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.” 

Eri nodded, “Thanks!”

Dragging Katsuma away from the counter, she headed towards the elevators. Lemillion’s office was on the seventh floor which meant she definitely didn’t want to take the stairs. 

Although Eri didn’t find anything on the main level to be very interesting, Katsuma was in awe of everything they passed. His face was lit up in excitement and his eyes couldn’t stay focused on one thing for a second too long. Eri chuckled to herself and gave his hand a quick squeeze. His gaze found hers for a second and he gave her a bashful grin. 

The elevator light lit up bright orange, indicating it was their time to get in. The doors slid open and Eri pulled Katsuma in with her.

They weren’t alone in the elevator. There was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties with light scraggly facial hair coating his chin. He was standing in the back corning, staring at the opposing wall, giving no inclination that he was even aware that Eri and Katsuma had just boarded with him. 

A hundred red flags went off inside her head. Though Nighteye Agency was huge, she had been here many times and she had never seen anyone remotely like this guy before. He also didn’t appear to be wearing a hero costume, and his complete apathy was giving her goosebumps. 

She felt Katsuma stiffen up next to her. Something was clearly wrong. Eri glanced over at the buttons and quickly realized that the elevator was going down. The only thing below the main level was the basement. Her suspicion level rose once more. This guy had come from one of the upper levels, and now he was heading to the basement- there wasn’t much in the basement except for storage and the boiler room. Why would he want to go down there? 

The elevator doors closed and it began its descent.

“Uhm, excuse me, sir?” She tried, dropping Katsuma’s hand. The man still gave no acknowledgment that she was there. “Hey, did you mean to get off on the main level? There’s not much in the basement.”

Despite her direct attempt to converse with him, the man still stared blankly at the wall. 

Katsuma gulped, “Eri…” he whispered. “What do we do?” 

She was sufficiently freaked out at this point, and her best plan was to simply wait it out. It isn’t like they had any other choice. They were trapped inside of the elevator, and once they got to the basement, they could just ride back up and get help. She had a feeling that this guy didn’t quite know what he was doing. 

“Let’s just-”

She halted mid-sentence when the elevator dinged and reached its destination. The doors slid open, and the man’s eyes finally moved from their place on the wall. His lips curled up into a terrifying smirk, and he stepped out of the elevator. 

Eri’s blood went cold and she felt frozen. The man stayed paused in front of the elevator and spoke in a low and gravelly voice that sent shivers up her spine, 

“It will all be over soon.” 

And then the elevator doors slammed shut.


End file.
